Hello, Tom, thank you very much for your post asking about me. Everything is ok with claudio, it was very hard at the beginning, because he was really scared, he had real pain in his throat, and was upset with ANESTESIA. but after 2 days in hospital, we saty 4 at home and went to malaga, to rest. On monday we will go to asturias.
what about you? your kids?
I hope to keep in contact with you, teacher...
Vic.
Friday, 15 August 2008
Thursday, 7 August 2008
Hello again from Tom
hi!
Hope you got home OK, and especially Vic that all is well?
It was good meeting and teaching you.
Best wishes
Tom
Hope you got home OK, and especially Vic that all is well?
It was good meeting and teaching you.
Best wishes
Tom
Friday, 1 August 2008
Thursday, 31 July 2008
HI FROM SPAIN, VIC
hello, everyone:
As some of you have already know, my flight to madrid was a complete diaster. flight cancelled, night at hotel in london...dealys on wednesday.. and crying and thinking of my son in hospital, fnally I get just ON time to see him before surgery...with my luggage in hospital...terribly tired, exhausted and frightened. they finish yesterday at 5pm, everything was ok, but Claudio is still in hospital until tomorrow to be seen by doctors to come back home. Poor thing...he is so little...and he feels bad, although doctors gave him Nolotil to be calmed. I´m sure everything is going to be ok tomorrow I in a few days He will be ok.
I miss you so much and I hope to see all of you in madrid...including Tom anytime.
thank you very much for your calls.
Kissvic from madrid.
As some of you have already know, my flight to madrid was a complete diaster. flight cancelled, night at hotel in london...dealys on wednesday.. and crying and thinking of my son in hospital, fnally I get just ON time to see him before surgery...with my luggage in hospital...terribly tired, exhausted and frightened. they finish yesterday at 5pm, everything was ok, but Claudio is still in hospital until tomorrow to be seen by doctors to come back home. Poor thing...he is so little...and he feels bad, although doctors gave him Nolotil to be calmed. I´m sure everything is going to be ok tomorrow I in a few days He will be ok.
I miss you so much and I hope to see all of you in madrid...including Tom anytime.
thank you very much for your calls.
Kissvic from madrid.
Wednesday, 30 July 2008
Manoli's diary
Sunday, 20th July
We arrived at the University of Sussex. I met two people at the airport and the rest, later, at the university. Questions such as: What’s your name?, Where do you work? are repeated. In the residence, everything is new and clean. GREAT!!! I met my new flatmates for two weeks. One of them is coming with her teddy “Romeo”
Monday, 21st July
All together tried to find the meeting point. It was easier than it looked. Welcome talks, advices, recommendations, explanations… I thought Brighton was saver. In the afternoon, our first visit to Brighton. We took the first bus that reached and we went to Marine. A wonderful promenade that you cannot lose. Seeing the sea is like being at home.
Later in the residence, when we were already sleeping, we could hear some noises in the corridor, we are not alone.
Tuesday, 22nd July
Bilingualism: different theories, different experiences. None of them has anything to do. In the evening, we met at King and Queen to have a drink, it was a karaoke session. On the way back, we were talking about thrillers, to be precise, about Tuno Negro. (A serial Killer decides to make justice on her own. All bad students must die all those who do not study, all those who tease, and all those who waste their time are murdered).
When we came back, we met our new flatmates, two boys and a girl from Qatar, they were discussing about how to cook a chicken.
Later, when everybody was sleeping, I went to the kitchen leaving my door open. However, when I went back… Surprise!!! The door had been locked. How could it be? NO, I was in pyjamas and slippers… my keys in my bedroom and a serial killer might go around looking for his new victim. Therefore, do not forget to pick up your key every time you leave your room. This kind of things happens quite often.
Wednesday, 23rd July
Tour in Brighton. After this tour and Alexandre’s talk, we know where we should go. Royal Pavilion really seems curious and appealing; we will find it out when we go on Saturday.
In the flat where we live, there are six people. On occasions, it is difficult to share flats. People are noisier, (Spaniards are believed to speak loud, but now I can tell you that it is not true), these people do not talk, they shout) and they have different manners, in my opinion, bad manners. Therefore, you need to be patient, take things easy and try to be tolerant, although it bothers you.
Thursday, 24th July
We spent all the afternoon doing one of my favourite things, overall when I am abroad, shopping. Carmen bought a new teddy bear at “Build up a teddy bear”. This time, it is a female teddy, Juliet: Romeo’s sister. In her school, each grade has a teddy bear, and then they needed a new one for those who start grade 1 in September. As the teddy bears are bought in UK, children can only use English to talk to them. The teddy is part of the group, it can go to spend the weekend with the pupils and on Monday they explain to the rest of the class what they did during the weekend in English, they took photos and so on. That is why Romeo comes with Carmen, because he is spending the summer with her, and when they come back, they will have a lot of things to tell.
I do not know if you know this shop, if you do not, it is worth visiting, there is a dressing room for teddy bears, you build up your own teddy, you prepare its birth certificate, its passport… anything you can imagine. Of course, you can find all sorts of accessories, clothes… whatever you want to.
It is AMAZING.
Friday, 25th July
WOW, the lessons today were excellent. They were about smart boards or interactive boards. We do not have one in my school, but, in May, the Consejeria told us that they would provide us with two the following year, so we may be open-mouthed and take advantage of all this we could see this morning when we come back in September. As far as I am concerned, I think this kind of boards are useful when learning foreign languages.
In the afternoon, we went to Rottingdean. It was great, but Fernando’s fall. First, we went for a walk around the village. The houses are nicer than in Brighton, and there is a lot of traffic in the roads
Then we went up to the windmill, there are no words to describe it. The landscape from there is incredible, but be careful, because there is a golf camp and a tee can hurt you. In the afternoon, we went to Rottingdean. It was great, but Fernando’s fall. First, we went for a walk around the village. The houses are nicer than in Brighton, and there is a lot of traffic in the roads.
Then we went up to the windmill, there are no words to describe it. The landscape from there is incredible, but be careful, because there is a golf course and a tee can hurt you. Later we went down to the beach and took a lot of pictures next to the white cliffs.
Saturday, 26th July
We entered the Royal Pavilion. It is amazing. When you are in, you wondered about the person who ordered to build it up: his life, his likes and dislikes, his lifestyle… how this eccentric monument can show us part of his character.
We had a good day visiting Brighton and Hove.
Sunday, 27th July
Tour to Canterbury and Rye. The bus did not arrive in time; British punctuality may be just a topic. It took us two hours to get to Canterbury by bus, a city with a great amount of monuments to see, such as: The Cathedral, St Augustine’s Abbey, several churches, the Canterbury Tales Museum, The Roman Museum, the Wall…. Our guide helped us to organize a historic boat tour and we met him again 90 minutes later. This means that we only had less than an hour to see the cathedral and wait in the queue because we were waiting about 20 minutes. We took the bus again to go to Rye, a small fishing village where there are a church and a tower with cultural interest. There, the guide booked a cream tea for all the students. In my opinion, it is really disappointed that the guide did not organize a group entrance in the Canterbury cathedral that it is quicker and cheaper, but, on the contrary, he booked a cream tea that you can have anywhere. I think that Canterbury is interesting enough to spend the whole day there, and that we spent too much time in a bus with no air conditioning in a really hot day. When we came back, I felt really disappointed.
Monday, 28th July
After a wonderful morning creating our own blog, come to reality and start writing a 700-word essay for tomorrow. Therefore, today we do not have enough time to do anything else.
We arrived at the University of Sussex. I met two people at the airport and the rest, later, at the university. Questions such as: What’s your name?, Where do you work? are repeated. In the residence, everything is new and clean. GREAT!!! I met my new flatmates for two weeks. One of them is coming with her teddy “Romeo”
Monday, 21st July
All together tried to find the meeting point. It was easier than it looked. Welcome talks, advices, recommendations, explanations… I thought Brighton was saver. In the afternoon, our first visit to Brighton. We took the first bus that reached and we went to Marine. A wonderful promenade that you cannot lose. Seeing the sea is like being at home.
Later in the residence, when we were already sleeping, we could hear some noises in the corridor, we are not alone.
Tuesday, 22nd July
Bilingualism: different theories, different experiences. None of them has anything to do. In the evening, we met at King and Queen to have a drink, it was a karaoke session. On the way back, we were talking about thrillers, to be precise, about Tuno Negro. (A serial Killer decides to make justice on her own. All bad students must die all those who do not study, all those who tease, and all those who waste their time are murdered).
When we came back, we met our new flatmates, two boys and a girl from Qatar, they were discussing about how to cook a chicken.
Later, when everybody was sleeping, I went to the kitchen leaving my door open. However, when I went back… Surprise!!! The door had been locked. How could it be? NO, I was in pyjamas and slippers… my keys in my bedroom and a serial killer might go around looking for his new victim. Therefore, do not forget to pick up your key every time you leave your room. This kind of things happens quite often.
Wednesday, 23rd July
Tour in Brighton. After this tour and Alexandre’s talk, we know where we should go. Royal Pavilion really seems curious and appealing; we will find it out when we go on Saturday.
In the flat where we live, there are six people. On occasions, it is difficult to share flats. People are noisier, (Spaniards are believed to speak loud, but now I can tell you that it is not true), these people do not talk, they shout) and they have different manners, in my opinion, bad manners. Therefore, you need to be patient, take things easy and try to be tolerant, although it bothers you.
Thursday, 24th July
We spent all the afternoon doing one of my favourite things, overall when I am abroad, shopping. Carmen bought a new teddy bear at “Build up a teddy bear”. This time, it is a female teddy, Juliet: Romeo’s sister. In her school, each grade has a teddy bear, and then they needed a new one for those who start grade 1 in September. As the teddy bears are bought in UK, children can only use English to talk to them. The teddy is part of the group, it can go to spend the weekend with the pupils and on Monday they explain to the rest of the class what they did during the weekend in English, they took photos and so on. That is why Romeo comes with Carmen, because he is spending the summer with her, and when they come back, they will have a lot of things to tell.
I do not know if you know this shop, if you do not, it is worth visiting, there is a dressing room for teddy bears, you build up your own teddy, you prepare its birth certificate, its passport… anything you can imagine. Of course, you can find all sorts of accessories, clothes… whatever you want to.
It is AMAZING.
Friday, 25th July
WOW, the lessons today were excellent. They were about smart boards or interactive boards. We do not have one in my school, but, in May, the Consejeria told us that they would provide us with two the following year, so we may be open-mouthed and take advantage of all this we could see this morning when we come back in September. As far as I am concerned, I think this kind of boards are useful when learning foreign languages.
In the afternoon, we went to Rottingdean. It was great, but Fernando’s fall. First, we went for a walk around the village. The houses are nicer than in Brighton, and there is a lot of traffic in the roads
Then we went up to the windmill, there are no words to describe it. The landscape from there is incredible, but be careful, because there is a golf camp and a tee can hurt you. In the afternoon, we went to Rottingdean. It was great, but Fernando’s fall. First, we went for a walk around the village. The houses are nicer than in Brighton, and there is a lot of traffic in the roads.
Then we went up to the windmill, there are no words to describe it. The landscape from there is incredible, but be careful, because there is a golf course and a tee can hurt you. Later we went down to the beach and took a lot of pictures next to the white cliffs.
Saturday, 26th July
We entered the Royal Pavilion. It is amazing. When you are in, you wondered about the person who ordered to build it up: his life, his likes and dislikes, his lifestyle… how this eccentric monument can show us part of his character.
We had a good day visiting Brighton and Hove.
Sunday, 27th July
Tour to Canterbury and Rye. The bus did not arrive in time; British punctuality may be just a topic. It took us two hours to get to Canterbury by bus, a city with a great amount of monuments to see, such as: The Cathedral, St Augustine’s Abbey, several churches, the Canterbury Tales Museum, The Roman Museum, the Wall…. Our guide helped us to organize a historic boat tour and we met him again 90 minutes later. This means that we only had less than an hour to see the cathedral and wait in the queue because we were waiting about 20 minutes. We took the bus again to go to Rye, a small fishing village where there are a church and a tower with cultural interest. There, the guide booked a cream tea for all the students. In my opinion, it is really disappointed that the guide did not organize a group entrance in the Canterbury cathedral that it is quicker and cheaper, but, on the contrary, he booked a cream tea that you can have anywhere. I think that Canterbury is interesting enough to spend the whole day there, and that we spent too much time in a bus with no air conditioning in a really hot day. When we came back, I felt really disappointed.
Monday, 28th July
After a wonderful morning creating our own blog, come to reality and start writing a 700-word essay for tomorrow. Therefore, today we do not have enough time to do anything else.
Tuesday, 29 July 2008
IMPORTANT MESSAGE ABOUT DEPARTURE
HI EVERYONE!!
PLEASE READ MEL'S EMAIL
CAN YOU CHOOSE A REP? TELL ME TOMORROW- TA
Hi Tom. Would you kindly nominate one of your group to act as a representative for the departure of the group on Saturday? The nominated rep will need to give me his/her mobile number and I shall pass onto him/her the driver's name and mobile number.
The coach (Sussex Country Coaches) will collect all 14 passenters (one lady has already gone) from Stanmer Court Residences at 13.00 hours on Saturday 2 August to take the group to LHA to catch flight from Terminal 2 departing at 17.35.
PLEASE REMIND ALL MEMBERS OF THE GROUP THAT THEY MUST BE READY TO LEAVE ON TIME AT 13.00
Many thanks. Mel x
Melanie Suppel
Accommodation and Welfare Officer
Sussex Language Institute
Tel: +44 (0)1273 678338
PLEASE READ MEL'S EMAIL
CAN YOU CHOOSE A REP? TELL ME TOMORROW- TA
Hi Tom. Would you kindly nominate one of your group to act as a representative for the departure of the group on Saturday? The nominated rep will need to give me his/her mobile number and I shall pass onto him/her the driver's name and mobile number.
The coach (Sussex Country Coaches) will collect all 14 passenters (one lady has already gone) from Stanmer Court Residences at 13.00 hours on Saturday 2 August to take the group to LHA to catch flight from Terminal 2 departing at 17.35.
PLEASE REMIND ALL MEMBERS OF THE GROUP THAT THEY MUST BE READY TO LEAVE ON TIME AT 13.00
Many thanks. Mel x
Melanie Suppel
Accommodation and Welfare Officer
Sussex Language Institute
Tel: +44 (0)1273 678338
Monday, 28 July 2008
Sandra's diary
SANDRA’S BRIGHTON DIARY
JULY 20th
We met some people of the teachers group at the airport although most of us didn’t know each other. We arrived to London with a little delay and then took a bus to Brighton. Our residence is located at the other side of the campus and we have to cross a motorway by an underpass.
The apartments at the residence are better than what I have expected. We have our own room and it is clean and comfortable enough to spend two weeks. We have en-suite bathrooms (that is a point) and a shared big kitchen quite well equiped.
JULY 21st
In the morning we met Tom Ottway and Melanie Suppel. Tom is going to be our teacher most of the time and is in charge of the methodological aspects and language improvement. Melanie is the Accomodation Welfare Officer and told us everything we need to know about the campus facilities and those rules we shouldn’t break.
In order to get to know each other, Tom organized a game consisting on guessing personal aspects through Yes/No questions. It was quite fun.
Free time activities:
We have taken the bus and visited the Brighton Pier. I live in Madrid and at some time of the year I long to see the sea, so I have really enjoyed the evening. We have walked around the sea front and before going back to the University we’we bought fish and chips and have eaten them quickly because of the seagulls looking at us in a dangerous way.
JULY 22nd
I’ve found the morning lecture about bilingualism interesting. The main point is that we’ve been listening English about a topic that interests us as teachers during 45 minutes. But after it we have realized that most of us are “semilingual” … quite depressing.
In the afternoon we went to the IT building to work on the computers at some web sites Tom had shown us before that morning.
Free time activities:
In the evening we’ve gone to the Lanes, but most of the shops we closing at that momen, so we haven’t been able to buy anything. At least we’ve found where they are located and we’ve enjoyed watching the atmosphere. We have also walked the surroundings of the Brighton Pavillion.
JULY 23rd
This morning we have attented a lecture really interesting. This time it was about history of Brighton. The lecturer was Alexandra Loske and she has told us the most important about Brighton in a brief, motivating and very well structured way. Besides it turned to be very useful for the afternoon city tour.
We have also worked a little on how to teach phonics and more websites related to that topic.
Tom has created a blog for the group and has explained us how to start and cope with it.
Free time activities:
We’ve had a guided city tour. We have visited the same places as yesterday but the guide explain us some interesting things about the city. Once we’ve reached the Pavilion some of us have prefered to stay there and pay to visit the inside of the Pavilion: really amazing and the hanging lamps impressive .
JULY 24th
I’ve found the group today more participative in all the activities.
We have started with pronunciation activities on the traditional song: The Old Duke of York. It’s been funny and useful.
Another activity I’ve interesting and able to adapt to primary levels is the “running dictation”. To be honest, I think that all the groups have cheated. We are like children.
We’ve also had a pair of debates. So, more speaking than other days.
Free time activities:
At last a shopping evening! We have gone to The Lanes again and to the Shopping area to finish the day we’ve had a bier and lunch at the pub next to the Brighton Pier.
JULY 25th
Today’s session has been a practical one about how to use Interactive Whiteboards. Only two collegues in the group have them in their schools and use them with some frequence. We did a practical activity in which we have to write our feelings at that moment into a speech bubbles. We had a quite good variety of adjectives: excited, interested, awkward…
Most of us tried to use it at some point. I think that some of us don’t feel confident enough with new technologies. And it has nothing to do with the age. The problem, from my point of view, is that as we don’t have these smartboards at our schools we will forget everything learnt once we are back in Spain if not before.
Free time activities:
We went to Rottindean “eager” to find a typical village and the Somck-village. Once we were there taking pictures happily, Fernando tried to show us he was in shape jumping up a fence to sit up on it, but as Humpty Dumpty did, he had a great fall.
Jokes apart, as he had a great pain in his right arm Victoria and me went with him to the Royal SussexUniversity Hospital where the doctor found out he had a cheap in one of his arm bones.
JULY 26th and 27th
On Saturday Fernando and me went to Cambridge to visit a friend of mine. We spent the day there an returned to Brighton around 1 am.
On Sunday we went to Canterbury but the organization of the the tour wasn’t as expected so people complaint a lot. Anyway Canterbury is a worthy place to visit as well as Rye.
JULY 28th
Another practical session today. It’s been about blogging. We have created our own blog though we don’t really know how to use it or the use we want it to.
JULY 20th
We met some people of the teachers group at the airport although most of us didn’t know each other. We arrived to London with a little delay and then took a bus to Brighton. Our residence is located at the other side of the campus and we have to cross a motorway by an underpass.
The apartments at the residence are better than what I have expected. We have our own room and it is clean and comfortable enough to spend two weeks. We have en-suite bathrooms (that is a point) and a shared big kitchen quite well equiped.
JULY 21st
In the morning we met Tom Ottway and Melanie Suppel. Tom is going to be our teacher most of the time and is in charge of the methodological aspects and language improvement. Melanie is the Accomodation Welfare Officer and told us everything we need to know about the campus facilities and those rules we shouldn’t break.
In order to get to know each other, Tom organized a game consisting on guessing personal aspects through Yes/No questions. It was quite fun.
Free time activities:
We have taken the bus and visited the Brighton Pier. I live in Madrid and at some time of the year I long to see the sea, so I have really enjoyed the evening. We have walked around the sea front and before going back to the University we’we bought fish and chips and have eaten them quickly because of the seagulls looking at us in a dangerous way.
JULY 22nd
I’ve found the morning lecture about bilingualism interesting. The main point is that we’ve been listening English about a topic that interests us as teachers during 45 minutes. But after it we have realized that most of us are “semilingual” … quite depressing.
In the afternoon we went to the IT building to work on the computers at some web sites Tom had shown us before that morning.
Free time activities:
In the evening we’ve gone to the Lanes, but most of the shops we closing at that momen, so we haven’t been able to buy anything. At least we’ve found where they are located and we’ve enjoyed watching the atmosphere. We have also walked the surroundings of the Brighton Pavillion.
JULY 23rd
This morning we have attented a lecture really interesting. This time it was about history of Brighton. The lecturer was Alexandra Loske and she has told us the most important about Brighton in a brief, motivating and very well structured way. Besides it turned to be very useful for the afternoon city tour.
We have also worked a little on how to teach phonics and more websites related to that topic.
Tom has created a blog for the group and has explained us how to start and cope with it.
Free time activities:
We’ve had a guided city tour. We have visited the same places as yesterday but the guide explain us some interesting things about the city. Once we’ve reached the Pavilion some of us have prefered to stay there and pay to visit the inside of the Pavilion: really amazing and the hanging lamps impressive .
JULY 24th
I’ve found the group today more participative in all the activities.
We have started with pronunciation activities on the traditional song: The Old Duke of York. It’s been funny and useful.
Another activity I’ve interesting and able to adapt to primary levels is the “running dictation”. To be honest, I think that all the groups have cheated. We are like children.
We’ve also had a pair of debates. So, more speaking than other days.
Free time activities:
At last a shopping evening! We have gone to The Lanes again and to the Shopping area to finish the day we’ve had a bier and lunch at the pub next to the Brighton Pier.
JULY 25th
Today’s session has been a practical one about how to use Interactive Whiteboards. Only two collegues in the group have them in their schools and use them with some frequence. We did a practical activity in which we have to write our feelings at that moment into a speech bubbles. We had a quite good variety of adjectives: excited, interested, awkward…
Most of us tried to use it at some point. I think that some of us don’t feel confident enough with new technologies. And it has nothing to do with the age. The problem, from my point of view, is that as we don’t have these smartboards at our schools we will forget everything learnt once we are back in Spain if not before.
Free time activities:
We went to Rottindean “eager” to find a typical village and the Somck-village. Once we were there taking pictures happily, Fernando tried to show us he was in shape jumping up a fence to sit up on it, but as Humpty Dumpty did, he had a great fall.
Jokes apart, as he had a great pain in his right arm Victoria and me went with him to the Royal SussexUniversity Hospital where the doctor found out he had a cheap in one of his arm bones.
JULY 26th and 27th
On Saturday Fernando and me went to Cambridge to visit a friend of mine. We spent the day there an returned to Brighton around 1 am.
On Sunday we went to Canterbury but the organization of the the tour wasn’t as expected so people complaint a lot. Anyway Canterbury is a worthy place to visit as well as Rye.
JULY 28th
Another practical session today. It’s been about blogging. We have created our own blog though we don’t really know how to use it or the use we want it to.
Sandra's diary
SANDRA’S BRIGHTON DIARY
JULY 20th
We met some people of the teachers group at the airport although most of us didn’t know each other. We arrived to London with a little delay and then took a bus to Brighton. Our residence is located at the other side of the campus and we have to cross a motorway by an underpass.
The apartments at the residence are better than what I have expected. We have our own room and it is clean and comfortable enough to spend two weeks. We have en-suite bathrooms (that is a point) and a shared big kitchen quite well equiped.
JULY 21st
In the morning we met Tom Ottway and Melanie Suppel. Tom is going to be our teacher most of the time and is in charge of the methodological aspects and language improvement. Melanie is the Accomodation Welfare Officer and told us everything we need to know about the campus facilities and those rules we shouldn’t break.
In order to get to know each other, Tom organized a game consisting on guessing personal aspects through Yes/No questions. It was quite fun.
Free time activities:
We have taken the bus and visited the Brighton Pier. I live in Madrid and at some time of the year I long to see the sea, so I have really enjoyed the evening. We have walked around the sea front and before going back to the University we’we bought fish and chips and have eaten them quickly because of the seagulls looking at us in a dangerous way.
JULY 22nd
I’ve found the morning lecture about bilingualism interesting. The main point is that we’ve been listening English about a topic that interests us as teachers during 45 minutes. But after it we have realized that most of us are “semilingual” … quite depressing.
In the afternoon we went to the IT building to work on the computers at some web sites Tom had shown us before that morning.
Free time activities:
In the evening we’ve gone to the Lanes, but most of the shops we closing at that momen, so we haven’t been able to buy anything. At least we’ve found where they are located and we’ve enjoyed watching the atmosphere. We have also walked the surroundings of the Brighton Pavillion.
JULY 23rd
This morning we have attented a lecture really interesting. This time it was about history of Brighton. The lecturer was Alexandra Loske and she has told us the most important about Brighton in a brief, motivating and very well structured way. Besides it turned to be very useful for the afternoon city tour.
We have also worked a little on how to teach phonics and more websites related to that topic.
Tom has created a blog for the group and has explained us how to start and cope with it.
Free time activities:
We’ve had a guided city tour. We have visited the same places as yesterday but the guide explain us some interesting things about the city. Once we’ve reached the Pavilion some of us have prefered to stay there and pay to visit the inside of the Pavilion: really amazing and the hanging lamps impressive .
JULY 24th
I’ve found the group today more participative in all the activities.
We have started with pronunciation activities on the traditional song: The Old Duke of York. It’s been funny and useful.
Another activity I’ve interesting and able to adapt to primary levels is the “running dictation”. To be honest, I think that all the groups have cheated. We are like children.
We’ve also had a pair of debates. So, more speaking than other days.
Free time activities:
At last a shopping evening! We have gone to The Lanes again and to the Shopping area to finish the day we’ve had a bier and lunch at the pub next to the Brighton Pier.
JULY 25th
Today’s session has been a practical one about how to use Interactive Whiteboards. Only two collegues in the group have them in their schools and use them with some frequence. We did a practical activity in which we have to write our feelings at that moment into a speech bubbles. We had a quite good variety of adjectives: excited, interested, awkward…
Most of us tried to use it at some point. I think that some of us don’t feel confident enough with new technologies. And it has nothing to do with the age. The problem, from my point of view, is that as we don’t have these smartboards at our schools we will forget everything learnt once we are back in Spain if not before.
Free time activities:
We went to Rottindean “eager” to find a typical village and the Somck-village. Once we were there taking pictures happily, Fernando tried to show us he was in shape jumping up a fence to sit up on it, but as Humpty Dumpty did, he had a great fall.
Jokes apart, as he had a great pain in his right arm Victoria and me went with him to the Royal SussexUniversity Hospital where the doctor found out he had a cheap in one of his arm bones.
JULY 26th and 27th
On Saturday Fernando and me went to Cambridge to visit a friend of mine. We spent the day there an returned to Brighton around 1 am.
On Sunday we went to Canterbury but the organization of the the tour wasn’t as expected so people complaint a lot. Anyway Canterbury is a worthy place to visit as well as Rye.
JULY 28th
Another practical session today. It’s been about blogging. We have created our own blog though we don’t really know how to use it or the use we want it to.
JULY 20th
We met some people of the teachers group at the airport although most of us didn’t know each other. We arrived to London with a little delay and then took a bus to Brighton. Our residence is located at the other side of the campus and we have to cross a motorway by an underpass.
The apartments at the residence are better than what I have expected. We have our own room and it is clean and comfortable enough to spend two weeks. We have en-suite bathrooms (that is a point) and a shared big kitchen quite well equiped.
JULY 21st
In the morning we met Tom Ottway and Melanie Suppel. Tom is going to be our teacher most of the time and is in charge of the methodological aspects and language improvement. Melanie is the Accomodation Welfare Officer and told us everything we need to know about the campus facilities and those rules we shouldn’t break.
In order to get to know each other, Tom organized a game consisting on guessing personal aspects through Yes/No questions. It was quite fun.
Free time activities:
We have taken the bus and visited the Brighton Pier. I live in Madrid and at some time of the year I long to see the sea, so I have really enjoyed the evening. We have walked around the sea front and before going back to the University we’we bought fish and chips and have eaten them quickly because of the seagulls looking at us in a dangerous way.
JULY 22nd
I’ve found the morning lecture about bilingualism interesting. The main point is that we’ve been listening English about a topic that interests us as teachers during 45 minutes. But after it we have realized that most of us are “semilingual” … quite depressing.
In the afternoon we went to the IT building to work on the computers at some web sites Tom had shown us before that morning.
Free time activities:
In the evening we’ve gone to the Lanes, but most of the shops we closing at that momen, so we haven’t been able to buy anything. At least we’ve found where they are located and we’ve enjoyed watching the atmosphere. We have also walked the surroundings of the Brighton Pavillion.
JULY 23rd
This morning we have attented a lecture really interesting. This time it was about history of Brighton. The lecturer was Alexandra Loske and she has told us the most important about Brighton in a brief, motivating and very well structured way. Besides it turned to be very useful for the afternoon city tour.
We have also worked a little on how to teach phonics and more websites related to that topic.
Tom has created a blog for the group and has explained us how to start and cope with it.
Free time activities:
We’ve had a guided city tour. We have visited the same places as yesterday but the guide explain us some interesting things about the city. Once we’ve reached the Pavilion some of us have prefered to stay there and pay to visit the inside of the Pavilion: really amazing and the hanging lamps impressive .
JULY 24th
I’ve found the group today more participative in all the activities.
We have started with pronunciation activities on the traditional song: The Old Duke of York. It’s been funny and useful.
Another activity I’ve interesting and able to adapt to primary levels is the “running dictation”. To be honest, I think that all the groups have cheated. We are like children.
We’ve also had a pair of debates. So, more speaking than other days.
Free time activities:
At last a shopping evening! We have gone to The Lanes again and to the Shopping area to finish the day we’ve had a bier and lunch at the pub next to the Brighton Pier.
JULY 25th
Today’s session has been a practical one about how to use Interactive Whiteboards. Only two collegues in the group have them in their schools and use them with some frequence. We did a practical activity in which we have to write our feelings at that moment into a speech bubbles. We had a quite good variety of adjectives: excited, interested, awkward…
Most of us tried to use it at some point. I think that some of us don’t feel confident enough with new technologies. And it has nothing to do with the age. The problem, from my point of view, is that as we don’t have these smartboards at our schools we will forget everything learnt once we are back in Spain if not before.
Free time activities:
We went to Rottindean “eager” to find a typical village and the Somck-village. Once we were there taking pictures happily, Fernando tried to show us he was in shape jumping up a fence to sit up on it, but as Humpty Dumpty did, he had a great fall.
Jokes apart, as he had a great pain in his right arm Victoria and me went with him to the Royal SussexUniversity Hospital where the doctor found out he had a cheap in one of his arm bones.
JULY 26th and 27th
On Saturday Fernando and me went to Cambridge to visit a friend of mine. We spent the day there an returned to Brighton around 1 am.
On Sunday we went to Canterbury but the organization of the the tour wasn’t as expected so people complaint a lot. Anyway Canterbury is a worthy place to visit as well as Rye.
JULY 28th
Another practical session today. It’s been about blogging. We have created our own blog though we don’t really know how to use it or the use we want it to.
Elena m's diary
Monday 21st July
We’ve started our teaching development course today. We’ve practising speaking skills and giving a short presentation about ourselves to know each other.
Some of the teachers work in a multicultural school with children from very different cultural backgrounds. This makes us think about the changes that are taking place nowadays in Spanish society and how this is reflected on education. We can find in the same class three or more clearly distinguished levels with students that work at very different paces. It is something we have to take into account when planning our teaching. However, this is quite different in well-heeled schools where the students come from the same backgrounds and there are not so many difficulties to teach them. Therefore, parents in these schools are very demanding and maybe it’s more challenging to work in a multicultural school.
Tuesday 22nd July.
We’ve attended a lecture about bilingualism. It was too theoretical but it has made me reflect on the importance of using the language in context and having into account aspects such as the negotiation of meaning in order to communicate effectively. That’s why we as teachers should consider not only language structure but also language use. Sometimes we focus too much on teaching lots of new vocabulary, correcting and revising it; for example in Science, and we forget about the usage. It’s probably more convenient that students learn a few words that they will use in context rather than a lot of words they will easily forget.
We’ve also done some online research and found some useful web pages. I’ve included here some of them:
http://www.dltk-kids.com/
Fun children's crafts, including printable craft templates, mini books….
www.first-school.ws/
Free preschool printable activities, crafts, lesson plans….
http://www.starfall.com/
Reading activities, Literacy... (American English)
www.britishcouncil.org/kids-games-play-and-learn.htm
The game “monkey squash” is very funny and motivating. ( Many topics).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/charlieandlola/stories/play_music/
Good website to teach music. (Instruments)
www.bbc.uk/cbeebies/inthenightgarden.com
For infants (songs with repetitive sounds, useful for drilling).
http://www.primaryscience.ie/site/activities_activity_movies.php
Nice experiments to try on the Science class.
Wednesday, 23rd July
We’ve had a wonderful lecture about the history and culture of Brighton. It’s quite interesting how Brighton became a place for wealthy Londoners and patients to cure their diseases at the seaside. The character of the “dipper” (Martha Gunn) that helped people into the water could be used in the class so that students could compare how diseases were cured in the past to nowadays methods and techniques.
It’s also quite appealing the history of mods vs. rockers and how the two groups confronted because of different ways of thinking and dressing. This can be used in the class with older students (Primary 5 & 6). We can work on the clearly marked differences in their clothes, the music they listened to and prepare some listening activities using The Who or Elvis’ songs.
We’ve dealt with phonetics too. I like the sound pictures activity. I think it’s quite useful to practise pronunciation. I’ll adapt it to work with little kids using simple sounds. For example, my students always have problems to distinguish between ai /ei/ and ie /ai/ as in “pain”, “rain” or “tie”, “pie”…Students mixed them very often. The “schwa “is difficult for them too as well as the difference between the pronunciation in “the” and “think”.
Thursday, 24th July
Today’s pronunciation class has been very productive. I like the idea of using traditional English songs to practise rhythm and intonation. It helps students to learn how to link chunks of language. If we combine the songs with movement to mark the rhythm, it’s an excellent way of improving our students’ command of the language. They’ll enjoy and feel more comfortable using English.
The dictogloss activity to teach how to organise a paragraph can be used to develop pupils’ writing skills if we adapt it to their levels. Sometimes we take for granted that our students know how to link the paragraphs in a text but that’s not always the case, even the oldest students, so we have to teach them strategies to cope with it, provide them with the language to use. This kind of activity is very useful to focus on the importance of cohesion and coherence.
Friday, 25th July
We’ve been working on the Interactive whiteboard. I’ve had the opportunity to use it in my school this year and it’s amazing the range of possibilities that it offers. It motivates students and makes the classes more appealing.
I was really surprised when I first used it in my class. The weakest students in the class or even those often misbehaving were very eager to participate and have a go with the whiteboard.
Saturday, 26th July
I’ve visited London with some of the people in the group. I’ve enjoyed it a lot and I’m willing to go back again in the near future.
Sunday, 27th July
I’ve been to Canterbury and Rye, wonderful places to visit but too little time to visit everything.
Monday 28th July
We’ve learned how to create a blog. I think it’s very interesting and I’ll use it to exchange sites, information and so on with my colleagues from other schools.
We’ve started our teaching development course today. We’ve practising speaking skills and giving a short presentation about ourselves to know each other.
Some of the teachers work in a multicultural school with children from very different cultural backgrounds. This makes us think about the changes that are taking place nowadays in Spanish society and how this is reflected on education. We can find in the same class three or more clearly distinguished levels with students that work at very different paces. It is something we have to take into account when planning our teaching. However, this is quite different in well-heeled schools where the students come from the same backgrounds and there are not so many difficulties to teach them. Therefore, parents in these schools are very demanding and maybe it’s more challenging to work in a multicultural school.
Tuesday 22nd July.
We’ve attended a lecture about bilingualism. It was too theoretical but it has made me reflect on the importance of using the language in context and having into account aspects such as the negotiation of meaning in order to communicate effectively. That’s why we as teachers should consider not only language structure but also language use. Sometimes we focus too much on teaching lots of new vocabulary, correcting and revising it; for example in Science, and we forget about the usage. It’s probably more convenient that students learn a few words that they will use in context rather than a lot of words they will easily forget.
We’ve also done some online research and found some useful web pages. I’ve included here some of them:
http://www.dltk-kids.com/
Fun children's crafts, including printable craft templates, mini books….
www.first-school.ws/
Free preschool printable activities, crafts, lesson plans….
http://www.starfall.com/
Reading activities, Literacy... (American English)
www.britishcouncil.org/kids-games-play-and-learn.htm
The game “monkey squash” is very funny and motivating. ( Many topics).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/charlieandlola/stories/play_music/
Good website to teach music. (Instruments)
www.bbc.uk/cbeebies/inthenightgarden.com
For infants (songs with repetitive sounds, useful for drilling).
http://www.primaryscience.ie/site/activities_activity_movies.php
Nice experiments to try on the Science class.
Wednesday, 23rd July
We’ve had a wonderful lecture about the history and culture of Brighton. It’s quite interesting how Brighton became a place for wealthy Londoners and patients to cure their diseases at the seaside. The character of the “dipper” (Martha Gunn) that helped people into the water could be used in the class so that students could compare how diseases were cured in the past to nowadays methods and techniques.
It’s also quite appealing the history of mods vs. rockers and how the two groups confronted because of different ways of thinking and dressing. This can be used in the class with older students (Primary 5 & 6). We can work on the clearly marked differences in their clothes, the music they listened to and prepare some listening activities using The Who or Elvis’ songs.
We’ve dealt with phonetics too. I like the sound pictures activity. I think it’s quite useful to practise pronunciation. I’ll adapt it to work with little kids using simple sounds. For example, my students always have problems to distinguish between ai /ei/ and ie /ai/ as in “pain”, “rain” or “tie”, “pie”…Students mixed them very often. The “schwa “is difficult for them too as well as the difference between the pronunciation in “the” and “think”.
Thursday, 24th July
Today’s pronunciation class has been very productive. I like the idea of using traditional English songs to practise rhythm and intonation. It helps students to learn how to link chunks of language. If we combine the songs with movement to mark the rhythm, it’s an excellent way of improving our students’ command of the language. They’ll enjoy and feel more comfortable using English.
The dictogloss activity to teach how to organise a paragraph can be used to develop pupils’ writing skills if we adapt it to their levels. Sometimes we take for granted that our students know how to link the paragraphs in a text but that’s not always the case, even the oldest students, so we have to teach them strategies to cope with it, provide them with the language to use. This kind of activity is very useful to focus on the importance of cohesion and coherence.
Friday, 25th July
We’ve been working on the Interactive whiteboard. I’ve had the opportunity to use it in my school this year and it’s amazing the range of possibilities that it offers. It motivates students and makes the classes more appealing.
I was really surprised when I first used it in my class. The weakest students in the class or even those often misbehaving were very eager to participate and have a go with the whiteboard.
Saturday, 26th July
I’ve visited London with some of the people in the group. I’ve enjoyed it a lot and I’m willing to go back again in the near future.
Sunday, 27th July
I’ve been to Canterbury and Rye, wonderful places to visit but too little time to visit everything.
Monday 28th July
We’ve learned how to create a blog. I think it’s very interesting and I’ll use it to exchange sites, information and so on with my colleagues from other schools.
Sorry, I' ve lost my diary but this is a short summarize of it. Enjoy your reading!
My experiences on my course in Brighton
During my first week in Brighton I have adquired new knowledges and refresh some I had forgot, and all of them have made me think about my work at school. Besides that ,I have learnt a bit more about English culture and about English real-life. For instance, some comments I have heard from English teachers in some meetings in Spain or England make me think that British teachers are quite concerned about security and safety issues, because they must have gone through difficult situations.
Talking about cultural aspects, I have discovered that Brighton is a lively, cosmopolitan, happy city full of students and amusements. But you can see quite poor people in the streets, as well. We’ ve been told that there’ s a big gap between poor and rich areas.
On one hand, English people seem to be quite aware of their cultural heritage. They always refer to their history and seem to be very proud of their monuments and landscape. We should imitate them!. We have visited some really nice towns and villages and we found charming places with incredible views. People keep them tidy not only for tourists, but for their own pleasure.
On the other hand, I have realised that in Brighton city lots of young people leave rubbish on the beach or in the street and it makes me think that perhaps things are changing now. Perhaps, people who do that are mostly foreigners or that is one of the remarkable differences between cities and villages.
I have found that people from different countries are not as different as we may think. We were enjoying a karaoke session in a pub in Brighton and I realised that songs and music have a great attraction for people of all ages and nationalities. No matter the country you are in, people feel the power of music and join together when they are singing. It was a fantastic experience!
Talking about what I have experienced by being here in terms of professional development, I had already heard about most of the theories I came across during this course. In some cases, I had put them into practice before without knowing their exact name, depending on what I wanted to get from my students. I think we should keep a flexible attitude, taking what we think it’s the most useful theory for us in every moment.
There have been some ideas I have taken into account for my teaching in the future:
-I like the idea of working with the language from the sound level first, and word stress in order to keep the rhythm of the sentences. Children find it quite interesting and it can be fun for them.I do it in my lessons with the “Jolly Phonics” method for my youngest students and I think I’m going to start working on short sentences too.
-The use of children’s recordings as a model for other students could be a quite motivating activity for my kids.
-I have discovered quite useful websites to work with IWB but I think I need to be patient and get ready for this new technology.
-I realise that I have to improve my pronuntiation. With the help of our language assistants at school I’ ll try to show a good model to my students. I’ m not very worried about using American or British English, as long as they can be understood by English speakers,and they enjoy learning a new language. My main aim is to motivate my students to carry on learning English after they leave school.
-An enjoyable activity should start by setting a collaborative task, making the students take decissions in groups.
-I could use video clips from BBC news for my oldest students.
In Spain we have a great lack of this technological resources, so we can’ t use them as much as we would like.
However, I find them quite useful and attractive for them.
No matter the media we use, a good way to start each activity could be getting the students to make questions about what they’ re going to listen first, or anticipating what’ s going to happen.
-Working with the Interactive White Boards! has been quite exciting!. I couldn’ t help thinking of my students working with it. It’ s magical!. Definitely, that is the future tool we’ ll use for our lessons. Sooner or later they will arrive to our schools and we have to be ready for it. I need time to get used to it and I’ ll suggest my school colleagues to get one of them.
Reading through all this text I realised I have learned a lot!
Learning a language implies the deveplopment of social skills and the respect to other cultures. A language is a tool to communicate with people from other countries. We are educating children to be citizens of a multicultural society and the learning of a language will contribute to open their minds and be more sensitive towards different countries in the world.
I have no doubt that the use of new technologies at school will contribute to improve our lessons, making them more up-dated and motivating for our students.
My experiences on my course in Brighton
During my first week in Brighton I have adquired new knowledges and refresh some I had forgot, and all of them have made me think about my work at school. Besides that ,I have learnt a bit more about English culture and about English real-life. For instance, some comments I have heard from English teachers in some meetings in Spain or England make me think that British teachers are quite concerned about security and safety issues, because they must have gone through difficult situations.
Talking about cultural aspects, I have discovered that Brighton is a lively, cosmopolitan, happy city full of students and amusements. But you can see quite poor people in the streets, as well. We’ ve been told that there’ s a big gap between poor and rich areas.
On one hand, English people seem to be quite aware of their cultural heritage. They always refer to their history and seem to be very proud of their monuments and landscape. We should imitate them!. We have visited some really nice towns and villages and we found charming places with incredible views. People keep them tidy not only for tourists, but for their own pleasure.
On the other hand, I have realised that in Brighton city lots of young people leave rubbish on the beach or in the street and it makes me think that perhaps things are changing now. Perhaps, people who do that are mostly foreigners or that is one of the remarkable differences between cities and villages.
I have found that people from different countries are not as different as we may think. We were enjoying a karaoke session in a pub in Brighton and I realised that songs and music have a great attraction for people of all ages and nationalities. No matter the country you are in, people feel the power of music and join together when they are singing. It was a fantastic experience!
Talking about what I have experienced by being here in terms of professional development, I had already heard about most of the theories I came across during this course. In some cases, I had put them into practice before without knowing their exact name, depending on what I wanted to get from my students. I think we should keep a flexible attitude, taking what we think it’s the most useful theory for us in every moment.
There have been some ideas I have taken into account for my teaching in the future:
-I like the idea of working with the language from the sound level first, and word stress in order to keep the rhythm of the sentences. Children find it quite interesting and it can be fun for them.I do it in my lessons with the “Jolly Phonics” method for my youngest students and I think I’m going to start working on short sentences too.
-The use of children’s recordings as a model for other students could be a quite motivating activity for my kids.
-I have discovered quite useful websites to work with IWB but I think I need to be patient and get ready for this new technology.
-I realise that I have to improve my pronuntiation. With the help of our language assistants at school I’ ll try to show a good model to my students. I’ m not very worried about using American or British English, as long as they can be understood by English speakers,and they enjoy learning a new language. My main aim is to motivate my students to carry on learning English after they leave school.
-An enjoyable activity should start by setting a collaborative task, making the students take decissions in groups.
-I could use video clips from BBC news for my oldest students.
In Spain we have a great lack of this technological resources, so we can’ t use them as much as we would like.
However, I find them quite useful and attractive for them.
No matter the media we use, a good way to start each activity could be getting the students to make questions about what they’ re going to listen first, or anticipating what’ s going to happen.
-Working with the Interactive White Boards! has been quite exciting!. I couldn’ t help thinking of my students working with it. It’ s magical!. Definitely, that is the future tool we’ ll use for our lessons. Sooner or later they will arrive to our schools and we have to be ready for it. I need time to get used to it and I’ ll suggest my school colleagues to get one of them.
Reading through all this text I realised I have learned a lot!
Learning a language implies the deveplopment of social skills and the respect to other cultures. A language is a tool to communicate with people from other countries. We are educating children to be citizens of a multicultural society and the learning of a language will contribute to open their minds and be more sensitive towards different countries in the world.
I have no doubt that the use of new technologies at school will contribute to improve our lessons, making them more up-dated and motivating for our students.
Elena Perez
PURPLE ELENA'S DIARY
M Elena Perez Marquez
20 July 2008
After a very nice flight and arrival in Sussex University, Brighton, we, the fifteen Spanish teachers from Madrid, began our stay at the University Residence; which turned out to be very clean and confortable. The University campus was also beautiful and very close to our place. So we were looking forward to spending a marvellous fortnight in a programme of real inmersion .
21 July 2008
We met our social programme guide at the University. We were taken to a meeting point where we met the rest of the staff.
Then already in class we met the Deputy Headteacher of the Language Institute and our regular teacher Tom, who was very interested in knowing our expectations and needs. We discussed a lot about the possible future topics we would like to talk about and we introduced ourselves explaining our roles in our schools as CLIL teachers in the bilingual Programme of the Community of Madrid.
We also had a useful guided tour around the facilities at the campus, and we could appreciate it was very well equiped with lots of resources.
We finished with some speaking activities as a warm-up for the two future weeks we were going to spend studyng at Sussex University.
22 July 2008-07-28
After having breakfast in our happily shared kitchen, we began our lessons with language exercises. We found them interesting since they dealt with new words related to adjectives. We thought it was great to have the opportunity of increasing our vocabulary. We really need to update our English.
Breaks are nice too as the weather in Brighton now is sunny and warm, so we had a coffee sitting in the sun in these peaceful and relaxing parks that are everywhere at the campus.
Then we listened to an interesting theoretical lecture about bilingualism. I liked this topic. Particularly I think it is necessary to know the old and new approaches of teaching English from their basis, so a theory lesson is necessary from time to time.
After that we had a short debate comparing the different definitions of bilingualism and being multi or monocultural. I really enjoyed it and tried to participate asking some questions.
After having lunch in the sun again, we were taught some info about interesting web pages where we could find materials for our CLIL lessons back in Spain. We went to the computer room to see and check them on our own.
We discovered surprising and amazing resources to use in the future.
A nice guide showed us books, DVDs, magazines, etc that we could use and borrow during our stay in the university. I borrowed the book Persuasion by Jane Austein. I had recently seen the film in Spain and I really liked it.
In the evening we visited the still sunny city of Brighton. We had great fun at the pier and The Lanes. We joined the social programme again and we went to King and Queen’s pub in downtown. There were lots of people participating in the Karaoke activity. I was very surprised when we saw the warhammer players upstairs, so elaborated and organized.
It was an excellent idea to go there and see Brighton at night which impressed us so much.
23 July 2008
The day began cloudly but warm. We had a very interenting beginning with the talk about Brighton history. Alexandra spoke nicely, clearly and slowly and we learnt a lot about the place. It was very, very exciting information and I was motivated in advance since I wanted to know the origin of this place in depth. She gave us lots of details covering different aspects, not only the history and geography but also news, music, art and even people and builidings. I think everybody liked it. Then we reviewed the most useful web pages that we visited the previous day and Tom showed us the blog he created for our group where we could find and add new information. He included links to help us with phonics which is an aspect we find difficult to deal with as we are not native teachers of English.
After lunch we met one of our guides and the whole group went on a guided tour in Brighton, sunny Brighton again, where we checked all the things we had studied in the morning about history of Sussex County and more specifically Brighton and Hove.
Then five of us visited the interior of the Royal Pavillion. Its Indian and Chinese style impressed us and we listened to the explanation helped by headphones in English. The palace was amazing and we couldn’t imagine we were going to find such a wonderful Banqueting Hall and Music Room. It’s difficult to see this original and surprising decoration in any other palace or place in the world , and not of course in Europe.
The weather in the afternoon and evening was fantastic. We had tea and scones in a delicate and typical tearoom and the we lied in the beach contemplating a very calm sea , almost as calm as the Mediterranean Sea in a summer day.
We had dinner in our kitchen and we found out that a good friendship was being born among us. We realized we had a lot of things in common. Bilingualism is something else appart from CLIL. It is also sharing a part of our own lives. Thank you.
24 July 2008
Intense day today. We’ve been working on pronunciation hard: how words link, rhyme and also about intonation and stress. We used the song The Grand Old Duke of York. It was a different way of using it in class paying special attention to stressed and unstressed words. It was curious to notice how different the selection can be depending on the rhythm. So, I noticed that not always meaningful words are stressed.
After the break we practised writing techniques such as running dictation. I liked dictogloss to create your own text but guided and based on a previous one you have previously listened to. I enjoyed taking notes and summarizing. Then we were shown how to exploid anything from youtube. We worked with clip “Wirewalker tells story”. I thought it was not very convenient for little kids but it was highly motivating for adults. I liked asking questions before the listening and try to find the answers when listening. Normally I do just the opposite. First my students listen and then aswer comprehension questions. So this technique was new for me.
As we were very worried about presentations we had a debate in which we suggested to reduce the time for sharing experiences and have more time for imputs because we needed inmersion as much as possible.
Tom listened to our “wishes” and looked very flexible and open-minded.
After a nice walk in Brighton Marina we went to bed really tired.
25 July 2008
Short Friday. People in Spain have a holiday today!!!!!
We worked on Interactive Whiteboards. Everybody was eager to know how to use them. First we learned how they work and we practised grouping, locking and basic movements. For me the most surprising thing was the possibility of linking material from internet and bring it to the screen for the children to interact.
Then we had Free lunch!!!!!!! Good idea! Thanks again.
We had self-study and in the evening we visited Rottingdean, a nice coastal village. We went to Kippling gardens and the black mill. And of course the church and the impressive chalk cliffs down in the beach. Unfortunally Fernando, one of our friends in the group, had a great fall from a wall when posing for a photo and we took him to the hospital. Poor thing! Well, a new and weird inmersion experience!
WEEKEND: 26-27 July 2008
Nice and exhausting weekend. On Saturday we visited Tonbridge Wells. We saw the waterspring, the gardens, the Pantiles and we even went on a steam train ride from there to Groombridge. We walked in its Enchanted Forest and had a nice cup of tea and scones….Delicious!!!!
On Sunday we went to Canterbury and saw the cathedral. The best of all was a boat trip in the old river and old quarters. Very beautiful. In the afternoon we went to Rye and we saw a pretty sight of the town from the tower of the church. We had delicious tea and scones again and come back to our place completely exhausted after a busy and productive day.
28 July 2008
Sad day for me. I woke up with an unpleasant piece of news. My friend’s father passed away early this morning.
Life and work must continue. I’ve learnt a lot about blogging today. I think having a blog will be useful for my professional development in the future and I really think I will use it a lot. Now I will include my diary here in Brighton and lots of things to swap with my colleages in Spain and abroad. Good learning! Keep up the good work!!! Thank you Tom! Don’t forget to come to my school if you visit Madrid. It would be fantastic!!!! Let’s have FREE lunch again!!! I’m really hungry!!!!
M Elena Perez Marquez
20 July 2008
After a very nice flight and arrival in Sussex University, Brighton, we, the fifteen Spanish teachers from Madrid, began our stay at the University Residence; which turned out to be very clean and confortable. The University campus was also beautiful and very close to our place. So we were looking forward to spending a marvellous fortnight in a programme of real inmersion .
21 July 2008
We met our social programme guide at the University. We were taken to a meeting point where we met the rest of the staff.
Then already in class we met the Deputy Headteacher of the Language Institute and our regular teacher Tom, who was very interested in knowing our expectations and needs. We discussed a lot about the possible future topics we would like to talk about and we introduced ourselves explaining our roles in our schools as CLIL teachers in the bilingual Programme of the Community of Madrid.
We also had a useful guided tour around the facilities at the campus, and we could appreciate it was very well equiped with lots of resources.
We finished with some speaking activities as a warm-up for the two future weeks we were going to spend studyng at Sussex University.
22 July 2008-07-28
After having breakfast in our happily shared kitchen, we began our lessons with language exercises. We found them interesting since they dealt with new words related to adjectives. We thought it was great to have the opportunity of increasing our vocabulary. We really need to update our English.
Breaks are nice too as the weather in Brighton now is sunny and warm, so we had a coffee sitting in the sun in these peaceful and relaxing parks that are everywhere at the campus.
Then we listened to an interesting theoretical lecture about bilingualism. I liked this topic. Particularly I think it is necessary to know the old and new approaches of teaching English from their basis, so a theory lesson is necessary from time to time.
After that we had a short debate comparing the different definitions of bilingualism and being multi or monocultural. I really enjoyed it and tried to participate asking some questions.
After having lunch in the sun again, we were taught some info about interesting web pages where we could find materials for our CLIL lessons back in Spain. We went to the computer room to see and check them on our own.
We discovered surprising and amazing resources to use in the future.
A nice guide showed us books, DVDs, magazines, etc that we could use and borrow during our stay in the university. I borrowed the book Persuasion by Jane Austein. I had recently seen the film in Spain and I really liked it.
In the evening we visited the still sunny city of Brighton. We had great fun at the pier and The Lanes. We joined the social programme again and we went to King and Queen’s pub in downtown. There were lots of people participating in the Karaoke activity. I was very surprised when we saw the warhammer players upstairs, so elaborated and organized.
It was an excellent idea to go there and see Brighton at night which impressed us so much.
23 July 2008
The day began cloudly but warm. We had a very interenting beginning with the talk about Brighton history. Alexandra spoke nicely, clearly and slowly and we learnt a lot about the place. It was very, very exciting information and I was motivated in advance since I wanted to know the origin of this place in depth. She gave us lots of details covering different aspects, not only the history and geography but also news, music, art and even people and builidings. I think everybody liked it. Then we reviewed the most useful web pages that we visited the previous day and Tom showed us the blog he created for our group where we could find and add new information. He included links to help us with phonics which is an aspect we find difficult to deal with as we are not native teachers of English.
After lunch we met one of our guides and the whole group went on a guided tour in Brighton, sunny Brighton again, where we checked all the things we had studied in the morning about history of Sussex County and more specifically Brighton and Hove.
Then five of us visited the interior of the Royal Pavillion. Its Indian and Chinese style impressed us and we listened to the explanation helped by headphones in English. The palace was amazing and we couldn’t imagine we were going to find such a wonderful Banqueting Hall and Music Room. It’s difficult to see this original and surprising decoration in any other palace or place in the world , and not of course in Europe.
The weather in the afternoon and evening was fantastic. We had tea and scones in a delicate and typical tearoom and the we lied in the beach contemplating a very calm sea , almost as calm as the Mediterranean Sea in a summer day.
We had dinner in our kitchen and we found out that a good friendship was being born among us. We realized we had a lot of things in common. Bilingualism is something else appart from CLIL. It is also sharing a part of our own lives. Thank you.
24 July 2008
Intense day today. We’ve been working on pronunciation hard: how words link, rhyme and also about intonation and stress. We used the song The Grand Old Duke of York. It was a different way of using it in class paying special attention to stressed and unstressed words. It was curious to notice how different the selection can be depending on the rhythm. So, I noticed that not always meaningful words are stressed.
After the break we practised writing techniques such as running dictation. I liked dictogloss to create your own text but guided and based on a previous one you have previously listened to. I enjoyed taking notes and summarizing. Then we were shown how to exploid anything from youtube. We worked with clip “Wirewalker tells story”. I thought it was not very convenient for little kids but it was highly motivating for adults. I liked asking questions before the listening and try to find the answers when listening. Normally I do just the opposite. First my students listen and then aswer comprehension questions. So this technique was new for me.
As we were very worried about presentations we had a debate in which we suggested to reduce the time for sharing experiences and have more time for imputs because we needed inmersion as much as possible.
Tom listened to our “wishes” and looked very flexible and open-minded.
After a nice walk in Brighton Marina we went to bed really tired.
25 July 2008
Short Friday. People in Spain have a holiday today!!!!!
We worked on Interactive Whiteboards. Everybody was eager to know how to use them. First we learned how they work and we practised grouping, locking and basic movements. For me the most surprising thing was the possibility of linking material from internet and bring it to the screen for the children to interact.
Then we had Free lunch!!!!!!! Good idea! Thanks again.
We had self-study and in the evening we visited Rottingdean, a nice coastal village. We went to Kippling gardens and the black mill. And of course the church and the impressive chalk cliffs down in the beach. Unfortunally Fernando, one of our friends in the group, had a great fall from a wall when posing for a photo and we took him to the hospital. Poor thing! Well, a new and weird inmersion experience!
WEEKEND: 26-27 July 2008
Nice and exhausting weekend. On Saturday we visited Tonbridge Wells. We saw the waterspring, the gardens, the Pantiles and we even went on a steam train ride from there to Groombridge. We walked in its Enchanted Forest and had a nice cup of tea and scones….Delicious!!!!
On Sunday we went to Canterbury and saw the cathedral. The best of all was a boat trip in the old river and old quarters. Very beautiful. In the afternoon we went to Rye and we saw a pretty sight of the town from the tower of the church. We had delicious tea and scones again and come back to our place completely exhausted after a busy and productive day.
28 July 2008
Sad day for me. I woke up with an unpleasant piece of news. My friend’s father passed away early this morning.
Life and work must continue. I’ve learnt a lot about blogging today. I think having a blog will be useful for my professional development in the future and I really think I will use it a lot. Now I will include my diary here in Brighton and lots of things to swap with my colleages in Spain and abroad. Good learning! Keep up the good work!!! Thank you Tom! Don’t forget to come to my school if you visit Madrid. It would be fantastic!!!! Let’s have FREE lunch again!!! I’m really hungry!!!!
isa`s diary
Monday 21st of July 2008
It is the 1st time I am here, in Brighton.
We are lucky because its sunny and hot, here in England!!! hihi.
We were talking in class about “ Talking techniques ” and I like a game we played with shapes and personal information that we had to guess.
I think that this kind of games are very useful for my kids.
After class we went to Brighton, and we visited The Pier and the beach, and we had dinner there.
At night we went to the campus pub and we met two Spanish people.
Tuesday 22nd of July 2008-07-28
It was a very nice day.
We were talking about Language improvements tools, and how to pronounce specific words and sentences.
Also we have a Introduction to Bilingualism lecture.
Bilingualism in our schools in Spain is very hard to do, and its very difficult to reach it, because children have a lot of social problems, and when they are out of school they “forget” to study or to speak in English, some of them don’t have resources, so…its quite hard.
At night we went to a Karaoke in Brighton, in the King and Queen Pub, and it was amazing how good people sing!!!!
Wednesday 23rd of July 2008
Oh!!!
I like very much this day.
We had a British Culture and History of Brighton Lecture, and it was very interesting and nice, I like very much the way Alexander Loske did it.
History of England is so interesting.
Also we had a phonics lesson, and I would like to do more about this, that`s very interesting, I think!!
In the afternoon we were to Brighton with Nicky (Social Programs), and we saw The North Laines, The Pier, The Royal Pavillion (outside only) …
Then, I had a tea in The Monks Turtle with some mates, and I tasted a really good apple cake…That’s my favourite one!.
Thursday 24th of July 2008
This was a very funny day, because what I need most and what I would like to learn in this course are games, songs… and more resources to teach different things in English ,so, this day we were singing The Grand Duke of York, and Tom (our teacher) show us how to pronounce words, the rhythm with Potatoes, hihihi.
We played the hangman in a very original form, with a man and a snake, and I find this kind of things very useful and I think I could use them in my classes.
In the afternoon we went shopping in Brighton, and then we had dinner at the beach, and we had a lot of fun and laughts.
Friday 25th of July 2008
I think that this day we had an interesting lesson with the Interactive White Board, because this is a quite amazing thing!! but in my case, I don’t have one in my school so it’s a pity that after this I cant use it and I cant practice with that.
But its incredible how we could use this and how many things this white board!! i like it very much!! but also, for me it’s a little hard to understand because I always have problems with computers, so…its like a dream to be true.
Weekend 26th- 27th July 2008
I spent the whole weekend in London with some mates of this course and I enjoyed it a lot.
It was hot and I bought a lot of things and we were in Candem Town that it’s the only part i haven`t been and its was so funny and interesting.
Monday 28th July 2008
Well,this day was a complete DISASTER!!!!
1st I woke up at 6am.
I learned how to blog things but it was VERY VERY difficult for me.
Silvia' s diary
Monday 21st July
Dear diary:
Today was our first day in the University.
First of all we had an appoinment with Melanie to explain us the important things we should know when we are here..
Afterwards, we had a walk around the University to get to know where everyplace are.
Even if Leona was showing us all the places, for me, was a completely mess know where place where.
I like the facilities that the University have.We also had a speaking time to introduce each other. It was difficult to remember the name of all the classmates!!
Tuesday 22nd July
Dear diary:
Today In the morning we had a lecture with Jeremy about the bilingualism.
To be honest, I didn’t like very much. It wasn’t interactive and in my opinion he didn’t go into the topic in deepth. Too much theoretical !!
I founded very useful for my teaching, for the preparation of the activities, the websites that Tom gave us and we were watching through the smartboard. Furthermore, we were surfing on the different websites qualifying them.
In my opinion this lesson is very useful because I discovered new ways to work with my children using this websites.
Wednesday 23rd July
Dear diary:
Today we have had a great day!
At the beginning we have had a lecture with Alexander. I founded really really interesting. She saw us books, pictures…even stones!!
She presented us in a very clear and very well way all the History of Brighton and things that were useful to understand better the city. I really liked.
To complete the lecture of the morning, we had a tour around the city. It was a fantastic idea because we could see the most things Alexander explained us.
I can say that I really like the city, very nice!
Thursday 20th July
Dear diary:
Today has been a very interesting and funny day in class.
First of all, we have been working on pronunciation. I got brilliant ideas to work rhymes or even chants as we have been doing today with the chant “The grand old duke of York”. It has been funny how we have felt as children singing the chant!!!
Other interesting point to use in the class is the dictogloss. At the beginning I have thought that it is a good method to us, teachers, but not for our children, due to the difficulty of the texts or even the level of writing of our children. But, we have been seeing how the dictogloss can be adapted to the level of the children.
Friday 25th July
At the end Friday!!! I was so tired!!!!
Anyway, I have enjoyed so much in class. We have been working on whiteboards and I founded it really interesting.
I have never used it and it’s so amazing!!!!
I think that there are a large range of utilities for the classroom and I really want my whiteboard in class SOON!!
The worst thing is that long time will pass until we will have this technology in our classes.
Anyway, we were trying how it works and the uses we can have.
I love computers and work with my children with this tool, so I got lots of ideas for my teaching.
Monday 28th July
Dear diary:
After a hard weekend in London and more tired than usual, I am in class again.
Today we were working on how to create and write in a blog.
It is really interesting and it can be an useful tool to use in the classroom when the level of English is high, to write all the class about something that happen or a topic. So all the class can work on the writing skill in a different and atractive way.
I have liked discover how blog works and how easy it is.
Dear diary:
Today was our first day in the University.
First of all we had an appoinment with Melanie to explain us the important things we should know when we are here..
Afterwards, we had a walk around the University to get to know where everyplace are.
Even if Leona was showing us all the places, for me, was a completely mess know where place where.
I like the facilities that the University have.We also had a speaking time to introduce each other. It was difficult to remember the name of all the classmates!!
Tuesday 22nd July
Dear diary:
Today In the morning we had a lecture with Jeremy about the bilingualism.
To be honest, I didn’t like very much. It wasn’t interactive and in my opinion he didn’t go into the topic in deepth. Too much theoretical !!
I founded very useful for my teaching, for the preparation of the activities, the websites that Tom gave us and we were watching through the smartboard. Furthermore, we were surfing on the different websites qualifying them.
In my opinion this lesson is very useful because I discovered new ways to work with my children using this websites.
Wednesday 23rd July
Dear diary:
Today we have had a great day!
At the beginning we have had a lecture with Alexander. I founded really really interesting. She saw us books, pictures…even stones!!
She presented us in a very clear and very well way all the History of Brighton and things that were useful to understand better the city. I really liked.
To complete the lecture of the morning, we had a tour around the city. It was a fantastic idea because we could see the most things Alexander explained us.
I can say that I really like the city, very nice!
Thursday 20th July
Dear diary:
Today has been a very interesting and funny day in class.
First of all, we have been working on pronunciation. I got brilliant ideas to work rhymes or even chants as we have been doing today with the chant “The grand old duke of York”. It has been funny how we have felt as children singing the chant!!!
Other interesting point to use in the class is the dictogloss. At the beginning I have thought that it is a good method to us, teachers, but not for our children, due to the difficulty of the texts or even the level of writing of our children. But, we have been seeing how the dictogloss can be adapted to the level of the children.
Friday 25th July
At the end Friday!!! I was so tired!!!!
Anyway, I have enjoyed so much in class. We have been working on whiteboards and I founded it really interesting.
I have never used it and it’s so amazing!!!!
I think that there are a large range of utilities for the classroom and I really want my whiteboard in class SOON!!
The worst thing is that long time will pass until we will have this technology in our classes.
Anyway, we were trying how it works and the uses we can have.
I love computers and work with my children with this tool, so I got lots of ideas for my teaching.
Monday 28th July
Dear diary:
After a hard weekend in London and more tired than usual, I am in class again.
Today we were working on how to create and write in a blog.
It is really interesting and it can be an useful tool to use in the classroom when the level of English is high, to write all the class about something that happen or a topic. So all the class can work on the writing skill in a different and atractive way.
I have liked discover how blog works and how easy it is.
bea's diary
TUESDAY 22 JULY 2008
I am writing about the following lesson: Online lexical resources
Many teachers believe that computers programmes and internet are one of the best resources to teach and learn English. There are several reason for this:
Studentes learn through doing, that means, it favours autonomy, which is very motivating.
The activities are graded according to students’ level. Therefore, it provides continuos assesment of learning process.
As we know, internet is a useful tool because we can look for any kind of information. For this reason, teachers can use it in their own plannig
In my opinion one of the best websites to teach English in the early stages of Primary are: www.bbc.co.uk and www.angles365.com
WEDNESDAY 23 JULY 2008
Personally, I believe that History of Brighton lecture was very interesting. As we know, nowadays, foreign language teachers must teach not only the language but also the culture.
Brighton is one of the most popular seaside cities of Great Britain. In the past it was a fishing village, however Brighton today is a cosmopolitan city. It has two universities, due to this, it is full of international students and tourists. For this reason, you can find a wide range of eating and drinking places: tearooms, pubs, fast food restaurants and many mediterranean restaurants.
My favourite pub is The king and the Queen, which is very beautiful, where you can find a big fireplace, round tables, and kings’ and queens’ pictures
THURSDAY 24 JULY 2008
I am writng about the following lesson: receptive skills using the new media
In this lesson we analysed how to use the video
As we know, our students use them at home, Why don’t use them in the school? I think they are useful resources of the union of both sound and image.
Before the video lesson, teacher needs to know what the video is about and chooses the video according to students’ interests and level.
As warm up activity we can use the following technique: we stop viewing and children try to guess what is coming next. This is a very good prediction activity to foster students’ motivation.
When we play the video, firstly, we concentrate on English language. Later, we can focus on characters’ behaviuor and sociocultural aspects. Finallly, as an integrated activity we can use drama technique.
SUNDAY 27 JULY 2008
I am writing about Canterbury and Rye trip, which was a social programme activity.
We arrived to Canterbury about 11.00 am. We spent only three hours there, and in my opinion we had not enough time to visit this beautilful city. Although I enjoyed in river tour and I visited its wonderful Cathedral, I could not see other tourist places such as St. Augustine’s Abbey, St. Martins Church, the Canterbury Tales Exhibition, the Roman Museum…
After visiting Canterbury we went to Rye which is a small fishing town. There, we could see the castle and the church. We had the opportunity to have a homemade cream tea in a lovely tearoom.
Personally, I believe that this trip could be better if we would have been only in Canterbury, because we spent a lot of time travelling by bus, and I think spending only three hours visiting this historic city is very stressful. I don’t know when I will come back and It was a great opportunity to visit this city, its cathedral is one of most popular one in Europe, not only because it is very big but also because is amazing.
I am writing about the following lesson: Online lexical resources
Many teachers believe that computers programmes and internet are one of the best resources to teach and learn English. There are several reason for this:
Studentes learn through doing, that means, it favours autonomy, which is very motivating.
The activities are graded according to students’ level. Therefore, it provides continuos assesment of learning process.
As we know, internet is a useful tool because we can look for any kind of information. For this reason, teachers can use it in their own plannig
In my opinion one of the best websites to teach English in the early stages of Primary are: www.bbc.co.uk and www.angles365.com
WEDNESDAY 23 JULY 2008
Personally, I believe that History of Brighton lecture was very interesting. As we know, nowadays, foreign language teachers must teach not only the language but also the culture.
Brighton is one of the most popular seaside cities of Great Britain. In the past it was a fishing village, however Brighton today is a cosmopolitan city. It has two universities, due to this, it is full of international students and tourists. For this reason, you can find a wide range of eating and drinking places: tearooms, pubs, fast food restaurants and many mediterranean restaurants.
My favourite pub is The king and the Queen, which is very beautiful, where you can find a big fireplace, round tables, and kings’ and queens’ pictures
THURSDAY 24 JULY 2008
I am writng about the following lesson: receptive skills using the new media
In this lesson we analysed how to use the video
As we know, our students use them at home, Why don’t use them in the school? I think they are useful resources of the union of both sound and image.
Before the video lesson, teacher needs to know what the video is about and chooses the video according to students’ interests and level.
As warm up activity we can use the following technique: we stop viewing and children try to guess what is coming next. This is a very good prediction activity to foster students’ motivation.
When we play the video, firstly, we concentrate on English language. Later, we can focus on characters’ behaviuor and sociocultural aspects. Finallly, as an integrated activity we can use drama technique.
SUNDAY 27 JULY 2008
I am writing about Canterbury and Rye trip, which was a social programme activity.
We arrived to Canterbury about 11.00 am. We spent only three hours there, and in my opinion we had not enough time to visit this beautilful city. Although I enjoyed in river tour and I visited its wonderful Cathedral, I could not see other tourist places such as St. Augustine’s Abbey, St. Martins Church, the Canterbury Tales Exhibition, the Roman Museum…
After visiting Canterbury we went to Rye which is a small fishing town. There, we could see the castle and the church. We had the opportunity to have a homemade cream tea in a lovely tearoom.
Personally, I believe that this trip could be better if we would have been only in Canterbury, because we spent a lot of time travelling by bus, and I think spending only three hours visiting this historic city is very stressful. I don’t know when I will come back and It was a great opportunity to visit this city, its cathedral is one of most popular one in Europe, not only because it is very big but also because is amazing.
Rodolfo's diary
MONDAY 21ST JULY 2008
Today I’ve gone to class for the first time, we’ ve all been telling everybody where we worked - so that made us know some more things about the rest of the people.
After class, we’ve gone to Brighton for a walk, ate outside and ended at the campus pub. We’ve found out that Sussex University receives many foreigners. I’ve met different people from different countries and even spoke to some spanish people too.
TUESDAY 22ND JULY 2008
Today has been quite an interesting day as I’ve learnt some more activities to work intonation. I’ve found really interesting the ‘telegram game’ ( e.g: I I W Y, I T H ! = If I were you’d tell her! ) and I think pupils will find it interesting too. Guided discovery has been good too (e.g : blue/glue) so that pupils can realise about all the different sounds in English.
Today has been the karaoke night and many students from Sussex University went to the pub ‘The King and Queen’. On our way to the pub, Leona told me some good and famous bands from Brighton.
At last, I’m at the residence, a drunk woman fell and the bus driver helped her to get up, after that the bus broke down and we all had to change bus, then the bus went on the motorway and we all thought we were on the wrong bus.
WEDNESDAY 23RD JULY 2008
Thanks to Alexandra, Niki, Leona and Tom I now know more things about Brighton. Alexandra has told us some rather interesting things about the history of Brighton, for example: ‘the Royal Pavilion’, ‘Old Brighton’s regular, rectangular pattern’ ( East Street, West street, North Street, Middle Street, Ship Street and North Laine area ), ‘Brighton’s population’, ‘Festival of the Arts’, ‘the West Pier’ ( partially collapsed and later burnt down, leaving only the skeleton of its iron-framework).
As the weather has been very nice , we’ve had the opportunity to go to Brighton on a tour trip. Niki has taken us to most of the places which Alexandra had spoken about earlier on that same morning.
THURSDAY 24TH JULY 2008
Today has been quite an interesting day at University because I’ve learnt some more activities I can use in my lessons. We’ve been singing the Grand Old Duke of York song and the idea of using big and small potatoes has been motivating.
One of the activities was to talk about what people thought about ‘marriage’. This activity has given us the chance to give our personal point of view in a spoken way .
Break-time today has been different from other days because we went outside and met students from different countries (biscuits,tea/coffee…)
We’ve just come back from the beach, we’ve thought that eating some sandwiches on the beach would be a good idea so that is what we ended doing.
FRIDAY 25TH JULY 2008
I think today has been the most interesting day as I’ve learnt how an interactice white board works. Apart from interesting, it has also been useful and motivating because we’ve all had the chance to have a shot of it and check if we all had understood how it worked.
Lunch has been different today,because I’ve met more people and discovered things from other countries. After lunch,I went to see a ‘mexican concert’ with some people from the course and I must say that I;ve really enjoyed.
Before going back to the residence, I planned my presentation for next week so that has taken me quite a long time.
SATURDAY 26TH JULY 2008
Visit to London with some people from the course.Had a great time!
SUNDAY 27TH JULY 2008
Visit to London with some people from the course.Had a great time!
MONDAY 28TH JULY 2008
Today’s lesson has been really useful, motivating and at the same time interesting because I’ve learnt how to create and customise our own blog. I’ve never been taught this before, so I’m now able to blog important documents and share information.
We’ve all had time to finish off writing our dairy - which is great! because we’ll have some more time to prepare our presentations.
Today I’ve gone to class for the first time, we’ ve all been telling everybody where we worked - so that made us know some more things about the rest of the people.
After class, we’ve gone to Brighton for a walk, ate outside and ended at the campus pub. We’ve found out that Sussex University receives many foreigners. I’ve met different people from different countries and even spoke to some spanish people too.
TUESDAY 22ND JULY 2008
Today has been quite an interesting day as I’ve learnt some more activities to work intonation. I’ve found really interesting the ‘telegram game’ ( e.g: I I W Y, I T H ! = If I were you’d tell her! ) and I think pupils will find it interesting too. Guided discovery has been good too (e.g : blue/glue) so that pupils can realise about all the different sounds in English.
Today has been the karaoke night and many students from Sussex University went to the pub ‘The King and Queen’. On our way to the pub, Leona told me some good and famous bands from Brighton.
At last, I’m at the residence, a drunk woman fell and the bus driver helped her to get up, after that the bus broke down and we all had to change bus, then the bus went on the motorway and we all thought we were on the wrong bus.
WEDNESDAY 23RD JULY 2008
Thanks to Alexandra, Niki, Leona and Tom I now know more things about Brighton. Alexandra has told us some rather interesting things about the history of Brighton, for example: ‘the Royal Pavilion’, ‘Old Brighton’s regular, rectangular pattern’ ( East Street, West street, North Street, Middle Street, Ship Street and North Laine area ), ‘Brighton’s population’, ‘Festival of the Arts’, ‘the West Pier’ ( partially collapsed and later burnt down, leaving only the skeleton of its iron-framework).
As the weather has been very nice , we’ve had the opportunity to go to Brighton on a tour trip. Niki has taken us to most of the places which Alexandra had spoken about earlier on that same morning.
THURSDAY 24TH JULY 2008
Today has been quite an interesting day at University because I’ve learnt some more activities I can use in my lessons. We’ve been singing the Grand Old Duke of York song and the idea of using big and small potatoes has been motivating.
One of the activities was to talk about what people thought about ‘marriage’. This activity has given us the chance to give our personal point of view in a spoken way .
Break-time today has been different from other days because we went outside and met students from different countries (biscuits,tea/coffee…)
We’ve just come back from the beach, we’ve thought that eating some sandwiches on the beach would be a good idea so that is what we ended doing.
FRIDAY 25TH JULY 2008
I think today has been the most interesting day as I’ve learnt how an interactice white board works. Apart from interesting, it has also been useful and motivating because we’ve all had the chance to have a shot of it and check if we all had understood how it worked.
Lunch has been different today,because I’ve met more people and discovered things from other countries. After lunch,I went to see a ‘mexican concert’ with some people from the course and I must say that I;ve really enjoyed.
Before going back to the residence, I planned my presentation for next week so that has taken me quite a long time.
SATURDAY 26TH JULY 2008
Visit to London with some people from the course.Had a great time!
SUNDAY 27TH JULY 2008
Visit to London with some people from the course.Had a great time!
MONDAY 28TH JULY 2008
Today’s lesson has been really useful, motivating and at the same time interesting because I’ve learnt how to create and customise our own blog. I’ve never been taught this before, so I’m now able to blog important documents and share information.
We’ve all had time to finish off writing our dairy - which is great! because we’ll have some more time to prepare our presentations.
marta's diary
July 20th, Sunday
After the short flight from Madrid to London Heathrow, a coach was waiting for us to go to Sussex campus. Once we arrived here, they gave us our keys in the reception and we could see the nice rooms we had. Everything was clean and new as Stammer Court has been openned recently. We had dinner from a bending machine because all the shops and restaurants on campus were closed, and then we were chating for a while in one of the kitchens. Finally we went to bed, asking ourselves about how the classes would the next day.
July 21st, Monday
We have had a welcome meeting with Melanie Suppel and Tom Ottway, our teacher. Melanie has explained to us all the rules, the possible prblems, the emergencies and all the general aspects we have to bear in mind during the next two weeks.
The Tom has given us some information about the course, and after this we have had a personal presentation about our schools, our pedagogical experience, our students, etc
After the classes it was the perfect moment to go Brighton. We all liked it very much and find it is an amazing city, really lively and with lots of entertaining things to do.
July 22nd, Tuesday
Today we had a lecture with Jeremy Page about bilingualism. It was interesting but maybe there was too much theory to understand in just 45 minutes.
We’ve been dealing with computers as well, exploring new pedagogical web sites. I found most of them really useful , as they have lots and lots of resources we can use for any subject.
July 23rd, Wednesday
We have started the day with a lectures about the history of Brighton, carried out by Alexandra Loske. I have to say she was great. She explained us a lot of curious details, and everyting was visually supported. Then we had a tour around Brighton with Nicky, one of the social programme organisers.
July 24th, Thursday
Today we’ve learnt the “dictogloss” technique. None of us knew anything about it, so it was quite interesting for everybody . We did an example about marriage, but obviously we can addapt the dictogloss to young learners contents.
July 25th, Friday
We had an amazing morning with the “smartboard”. Now I can understand why children feel are so excited about writing on the blackboard. It’s a new experience for them. The interactive whiteboard has just fascinated me. You can use practically any resource you need with it. July 20th, Sunday
Weekend
Once again, I went to London for the weekend. I am just in love with the city. Even thought I ‘ve been there many times I never get tired of it.
After the short flight from Madrid to London Heathrow, a coach was waiting for us to go to Sussex campus. Once we arrived here, they gave us our keys in the reception and we could see the nice rooms we had. Everything was clean and new as Stammer Court has been openned recently. We had dinner from a bending machine because all the shops and restaurants on campus were closed, and then we were chating for a while in one of the kitchens. Finally we went to bed, asking ourselves about how the classes would the next day.
July 21st, Monday
We have had a welcome meeting with Melanie Suppel and Tom Ottway, our teacher. Melanie has explained to us all the rules, the possible prblems, the emergencies and all the general aspects we have to bear in mind during the next two weeks.
The Tom has given us some information about the course, and after this we have had a personal presentation about our schools, our pedagogical experience, our students, etc
After the classes it was the perfect moment to go Brighton. We all liked it very much and find it is an amazing city, really lively and with lots of entertaining things to do.
July 22nd, Tuesday
Today we had a lecture with Jeremy Page about bilingualism. It was interesting but maybe there was too much theory to understand in just 45 minutes.
We’ve been dealing with computers as well, exploring new pedagogical web sites. I found most of them really useful , as they have lots and lots of resources we can use for any subject.
July 23rd, Wednesday
We have started the day with a lectures about the history of Brighton, carried out by Alexandra Loske. I have to say she was great. She explained us a lot of curious details, and everyting was visually supported. Then we had a tour around Brighton with Nicky, one of the social programme organisers.
July 24th, Thursday
Today we’ve learnt the “dictogloss” technique. None of us knew anything about it, so it was quite interesting for everybody . We did an example about marriage, but obviously we can addapt the dictogloss to young learners contents.
July 25th, Friday
We had an amazing morning with the “smartboard”. Now I can understand why children feel are so excited about writing on the blackboard. It’s a new experience for them. The interactive whiteboard has just fascinated me. You can use practically any resource you need with it. July 20th, Sunday
Weekend
Once again, I went to London for the weekend. I am just in love with the city. Even thought I ‘ve been there many times I never get tired of it.
marta's diary
July 20th, Sunday
After the short flight from Madrid to London Heathrow, a coach was waiting for us to go to Sussex campus. Once we arrived here, they gave us our keys in the reception and we could see the nice rooms we had. Everything was clean and new as Stammer Court has been openned recently. We had dinner from a bending machine because all the shops and restaurants on campus were closed, and then we were chating for a while in one of the kitchens. Finally we went to bed, asking ourselves about how the classes would the next day.
July 21st, Monday
We have had a welcome meeting with Melanie Suppel and Tom Ottway, our teacher. Melanie has explained to us all the rules, the possible prblems, the emergencies and all the general aspects we have to bear in mind during the next two weeks.
The Tom has given us some information about the course, and after this we have had a personal presentation about our schools, our pedagogical experience, our students, etc
After the classes it was the perfect moment to go Brighton. We all liked it very much and find it is an amazing city, really lively and with lots of entertaining things to do.
July 22nd, Tuesday
Today we had a lecture with Jeremy Page about bilingualism. It was interesting but maybe there was too much theory to understand in just 45 minutes.
We’ve been dealing with computers as well, exploring new pedagogical web sites. I found most of them really useful , as they have lots and lots of resources we can use for any subject.
July 23rd, Wednesday
We have started the day with a lectures about the history of Brighton, carried out by Alexandra Loske. I have to say she was great. She explained us a lot of curious details, and everyting was visually supported. Then we had a tour around Brighton with Nicky, one of the social programme organisers.
July 24th, Thursday
Today we’ve learnt the “dictogloss” technique. None of us knew anything about it, so it was quite interesting for everybody . We did an example about marriage, but obviously we can addapt the dictogloss to young learners contents.
July 25th, Friday
We had an amazing morning with the “smartboard”. Now I can understand why children feel are so excited about writing on the blackboard. It’s a new experience for them. The interactive whiteboard has just fascinated me. You can use practically any resource you need with it. July 20th, Sunday
Weekend
Once again, I went to London for the weekend. I am just in love with the city. Even thought I ‘ve been there many times I never get tired of it.
After the short flight from Madrid to London Heathrow, a coach was waiting for us to go to Sussex campus. Once we arrived here, they gave us our keys in the reception and we could see the nice rooms we had. Everything was clean and new as Stammer Court has been openned recently. We had dinner from a bending machine because all the shops and restaurants on campus were closed, and then we were chating for a while in one of the kitchens. Finally we went to bed, asking ourselves about how the classes would the next day.
July 21st, Monday
We have had a welcome meeting with Melanie Suppel and Tom Ottway, our teacher. Melanie has explained to us all the rules, the possible prblems, the emergencies and all the general aspects we have to bear in mind during the next two weeks.
The Tom has given us some information about the course, and after this we have had a personal presentation about our schools, our pedagogical experience, our students, etc
After the classes it was the perfect moment to go Brighton. We all liked it very much and find it is an amazing city, really lively and with lots of entertaining things to do.
July 22nd, Tuesday
Today we had a lecture with Jeremy Page about bilingualism. It was interesting but maybe there was too much theory to understand in just 45 minutes.
We’ve been dealing with computers as well, exploring new pedagogical web sites. I found most of them really useful , as they have lots and lots of resources we can use for any subject.
July 23rd, Wednesday
We have started the day with a lectures about the history of Brighton, carried out by Alexandra Loske. I have to say she was great. She explained us a lot of curious details, and everyting was visually supported. Then we had a tour around Brighton with Nicky, one of the social programme organisers.
July 24th, Thursday
Today we’ve learnt the “dictogloss” technique. None of us knew anything about it, so it was quite interesting for everybody . We did an example about marriage, but obviously we can addapt the dictogloss to young learners contents.
July 25th, Friday
We had an amazing morning with the “smartboard”. Now I can understand why children feel are so excited about writing on the blackboard. It’s a new experience for them. The interactive whiteboard has just fascinated me. You can use practically any resource you need with it. July 20th, Sunday
Weekend
Once again, I went to London for the weekend. I am just in love with the city. Even thought I ‘ve been there many times I never get tired of it.
carmen experiment
Experiences at Brighton
MY DIARY
21st July
I felt a certain fear during the first class because of the horrible things that could happen in Brighton. I felt as if it was a dangerous place to walk through. I felt quite interested in knowing about how the different materials and tools could be presented. Also the tour through the campus was quite useful and we started to move around it with freedom.
The first day I went to Brighton I took a bus, the 25C, and I arrived with some friends to the seafront. My first impression was really good. I felt surprised because of those beautiful views, the cliffs, the sea, the beach and the people. We walked along the seafront, looking everywhere and taking as much photos as possible. This walk was fantastic. I will always remember this first afternoon. We could see the beach, the sun behind the Brighton Pier and lot of marvellous buildings.
22nd July
We were playing the “Gambins” and the “Telegraph game”. I think these games were useful adapting them to my student’s level.
Tom gave us the list of different webs to visit and search the most useful for our teaching practice.I was practising with some of them. I found some useful webs to put in practice with the students. One of the most useful webs is “BBC” were you can find interesting videos and games to review and present new vocabulary.
I consider very important for our daily work with students to know how we can use the new technologies in class, and how to find useful webs to work with. If I’m able to have a computer in class, I would like to put into practice some of these webs, so that my students could listen to a native speaker and could see authentic materials. They will feel confident using them in class because some of them are adapted to their levels.
23rd July
I found quite useful the lecture about the History of Brighton and Hove. I think it’s very interesting, when visiting a foreign country, to know a bout the history and the meaning and origin of some important places. I felt very comfortable when listening to the explication and looking to the marvellous pictures Alex brought.
The most interesting thing I saw was the Royal Pavilion. I was impressed by the surroundings and the gardens. I felt as if I were in India or in China. I think it is a good place to visit and to spend the day in. You can feel so upset walking along the beautiful gardens and feeling relaxed there.
24th July
We were working with PHONICS. These are quite interesting and useful if you have access to a computer or a smart board. If you haven’t, it’s really difficult to present the correct sound according to the correct phoneme. If I have the chance I could try to present the phonemes to my students.
After that we’ve seen a video without sounds and we have had questions according to it. It’s for a high level of English; it’s not useful for my students if I present a real video. Maybe I can try with a carton video or something like that according to their level and interests. I could use some videos from BBC. Some of these webs:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/music/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/fun/
http://www.sci-spy.ie/
You might have to adapt the videos to your students’ level. But some of them are useful to explain some science topics.
http://www.eslprintables.com
Here you can find some printable sheets and activities. You must have a look.
During the afternoon I went to the “Teddy Bear shop”. I build up a bear for the students on year 1. So that they could speak with her in English. It was a wonderful experience and I found it really funny. I enjoyed the time buying the bear and putting on her new clothes.
25th July
We have tried working with the SMARTBOARD. This is easy to work with it. You can let students to interact with the lesson and to pay attention to what they are doing. I think it’s a good material to use with the students. I have worked with the smart board and my students. They feel confident the first day and also very excited. It is a good experience for them. So I invite everyone to practice and to work with it in the class if the have the opportunity. I found it quite useful, but you have to practise a lot.
27th July
I went to Canterbury and Rye. It seemed to be a very exciting experience but at the end it was not as good as I thought. We spent ONLY 2 hours and a half in Canterbury, it wasn’t enough time to see and visit all the main places there. I couldn’t see properly the Cathedral and I felt so worried to see as much things as possible. I couldn’t enjoy the visit. It was a pity. It was a disaster.
And when we arrived to Rye we had the same time to see the church, the castle and to drink a tea. We could spend less time there because you can walk around the city in an hour.
28th July
I have learnt to create a Google mail. It was no too difficult. I felt comfortable doing it. Also I started creating a new blog, where I have to download my diary and some useful things for the rest of the class.It’s useful if you want others to see your favourite things. I think it's an excelletent idea to share materials with other teachers.
Primary Video clips Teacher's TV
Check these out
Could be useful for presentations.
Resource Review - Primary Science: Electricity
http://www.teachers.tv/video/27045
KS1/2 Science - Dancing in Science: Lesson Review
http://www.teachers.tv/video/3148
KS1/2 Science - Dancing in Science
http://www.teachers.tv/video/3147
http://www.conceptcartoons.com
Concept cartoons
Science Tube - Green World
Mini documentary
http://www.teachers.tv/video/12097
KS1/2 Art - Great Paintings
http://www.teachers.tv/video/27393
Example of hotseating
Primary Framework - Early Reading
Phonics and reading
http://www.teachers.tv/video/27626
KS1/2 Art - Carnival of the Birds
http://www.teachers.tv/video/27396
From Good To Outstanding - Chloe Mercado
http://www.teachers.tv/video/25613
CPD and science
KS1/2 Music - Managing Music at KS1
http://www.teachers.tv/video/1439
http://www.teachers.tv/video/24501
Video Information
Length:
15 minutes
Key stages:
Key Stage 2
Primary
Subjects:
Science
Roles:
Teacher
Synopsis
A useful lesson designed to encourage pupils to consider the ways in which they learn, help them to take ownership of their own learning and raise awareness of the factors that can affect this.
At the Hills Lower School in Bedfordshire, teacher Carol Humphries uses the KS2 Ready to Learn lesson plan and resources downloadable from Teachers TV. She begins her Year 4 lesson with a card sort and discussion.
After a vigorous session of brain gym, the children explore the various factors that affect their mental state. At the end of the lesson, the children come up with their own top tips on how to make themselves more ready to learn.
Tom
Could be useful for presentations.
Resource Review - Primary Science: Electricity
http://www.teachers.tv/video/27045
KS1/2 Science - Dancing in Science: Lesson Review
http://www.teachers.tv/video/3148
KS1/2 Science - Dancing in Science
http://www.teachers.tv/video/3147
http://www.conceptcartoons.com
Concept cartoons
Science Tube - Green World
Mini documentary
http://www.teachers.tv/video/12097
KS1/2 Art - Great Paintings
http://www.teachers.tv/video/27393
Example of hotseating
Primary Framework - Early Reading
Phonics and reading
http://www.teachers.tv/video/27626
KS1/2 Art - Carnival of the Birds
http://www.teachers.tv/video/27396
From Good To Outstanding - Chloe Mercado
http://www.teachers.tv/video/25613
CPD and science
KS1/2 Music - Managing Music at KS1
http://www.teachers.tv/video/1439
http://www.teachers.tv/video/24501
Video Information
Length:
15 minutes
Key stages:
Key Stage 2
Primary
Subjects:
Science
Roles:
Teacher
Synopsis
A useful lesson designed to encourage pupils to consider the ways in which they learn, help them to take ownership of their own learning and raise awareness of the factors that can affect this.
At the Hills Lower School in Bedfordshire, teacher Carol Humphries uses the KS2 Ready to Learn lesson plan and resources downloadable from Teachers TV. She begins her Year 4 lesson with a card sort and discussion.
After a vigorous session of brain gym, the children explore the various factors that affect their mental state. At the end of the lesson, the children come up with their own top tips on how to make themselves more ready to learn.
Tom
Presentation language
Introduction
The subject of my presentation is…
I’m going to divide my presentation into three sections.
My topic today is…
Using visuals
You can see from this chart that…
It is clear from this graph that…
If you look at this map, you’ll see that…
Changing direction or linking
The second question I’d like to discuss is…
Turning now to…
I’d now like to turn to…
That brings me to my next point….
Concluding
So, to remind you of what I’ve covered in this presentation, I started by saying… So, to sum up…
Asking for clarification
I’m afraid I didn’t follow your point
Could you go over what you said about…?
Could you explain what you meant when you said (that)…?
Could you give an example of…?
Could you expand a little on what you said about…?
Could you be more specific about…?
Style of Delivery:
• Reading from a script - what can the problems be?
• Speaking from notes - what are the advantages?
• If the audience is making notes, how should this affect your speed and style of delivery?
• Ensure that you provide links to alert the audience to changes of direction
• How can you ensure the audience can understand your pronunciation of certain words?
Style of Delivery:
• Reading from a script - what can the problems be?
• Speaking from notes - what are the advantages?
• If the audience is making notes, how should this affect your speed and style of delivery?
• Ensure that you provide links to alert the audience to changes of direction
• How can you ensure the audience can understand your pronunciation of certain words?
Giving a Presentation: handouts
Consider:
• Do you want to give a handout?
• When will you give out the handout?
• What does an audience do when given a handout?
• What will be on the handout? How will it be used?
• How many slides should be used in a 20 min. presentation?
• What information, and how much, should be on the slides?
How many slides should be used in a 20 min. presentation? 5 max
-What information, and how much, should be on the slides? Key words, questions for audience to reiterate main points: help them follow etc
NOT your analysis! Info not comment
-Don’t spend too much time being overly slick- keep it simple. Could you give presentation if computer broke down?
-references
Format and font size: easy to see! Not a big complicated, dense table!!
The subject of my presentation is…
I’m going to divide my presentation into three sections.
My topic today is…
Using visuals
You can see from this chart that…
It is clear from this graph that…
If you look at this map, you’ll see that…
Changing direction or linking
The second question I’d like to discuss is…
Turning now to…
I’d now like to turn to…
That brings me to my next point….
Concluding
So, to remind you of what I’ve covered in this presentation, I started by saying… So, to sum up…
Asking for clarification
I’m afraid I didn’t follow your point
Could you go over what you said about…?
Could you explain what you meant when you said (that)…?
Could you give an example of…?
Could you expand a little on what you said about…?
Could you be more specific about…?
Style of Delivery:
• Reading from a script - what can the problems be?
• Speaking from notes - what are the advantages?
• If the audience is making notes, how should this affect your speed and style of delivery?
• Ensure that you provide links to alert the audience to changes of direction
• How can you ensure the audience can understand your pronunciation of certain words?
Style of Delivery:
• Reading from a script - what can the problems be?
• Speaking from notes - what are the advantages?
• If the audience is making notes, how should this affect your speed and style of delivery?
• Ensure that you provide links to alert the audience to changes of direction
• How can you ensure the audience can understand your pronunciation of certain words?
Giving a Presentation: handouts
Consider:
• Do you want to give a handout?
• When will you give out the handout?
• What does an audience do when given a handout?
• What will be on the handout? How will it be used?
• How many slides should be used in a 20 min. presentation?
• What information, and how much, should be on the slides?
How many slides should be used in a 20 min. presentation? 5 max
-What information, and how much, should be on the slides? Key words, questions for audience to reiterate main points: help them follow etc
NOT your analysis! Info not comment
-Don’t spend too much time being overly slick- keep it simple. Could you give presentation if computer broke down?
-references
Format and font size: easy to see! Not a big complicated, dense table!!
vic's diary
Vic in Brightn
Monday, 21st of july of 2008
After a really nice flight, I have to say that I was on a perfect seat just to look trough the window and see everything from the air, spanish coast, french coast…the “english channel”…we call it (canal de la mancha), and an incredible view of london.
Tuesday, 22st of july of 2008
A little bit hungry, we reached the university and took place in our confortable rooms at stamner house.
I was looking forward to start the lesson at sussex. On the first day, I was really amazed of the beauty of the campus, really green grass carpeted. Some advices from Melanie Suppel We talked about ourselves to know experiences at school and made some funny and useful meeting people games like “decide who’s coming to dinner”.
Wednesday, 23rd of july of 2008
We’re going on very well with Tom, the teacher, and until now, we’ve received some interesting lectures (specially one about the history of Brighton…taking into consideration that I have my degree in History and I love it). Welcome to new webs to use at school! We found out Dictogloss. Great!
Thrusday, 24 of july of 2008
Hard to learn and sing “the grand old duke of york” all together. Useful pronunciation exercices to be adapted to our pupils. Yesterday we went to Brighton with Nick, it was fine, we visited the Royal Palace, the lanes…very good weather and some shopping at sainsbury just for dinner (we can,t eat outside everyday…). Watch out the seagulls, Elena was quietly having lunch and suddenly a seagull picked up her sandwich!..what a boo!
Friday, 25 of july of 2008
White Board!...it’s amazing!...I want one at school for september! Please!. Finally I am able to use it, it’s incredible!
We went to Rootidgedean, beautiful town, nice views, but…Fernando (Humpty Dumpty) sat on a wall..and had a great fall..poor thing!. Unlees we were practising english at Royal Sussex County Hospital…
Saturday, 26 of july of 2008
I went to London with Silvia, Isa, Elena, Rodo and Rafa, we really had a great time!, we were tired…but London is… London.
Monday, 21st of july of 2008
After a really nice flight, I have to say that I was on a perfect seat just to look trough the window and see everything from the air, spanish coast, french coast…the “english channel”…we call it (canal de la mancha), and an incredible view of london.
Tuesday, 22st of july of 2008
A little bit hungry, we reached the university and took place in our confortable rooms at stamner house.
I was looking forward to start the lesson at sussex. On the first day, I was really amazed of the beauty of the campus, really green grass carpeted. Some advices from Melanie Suppel We talked about ourselves to know experiences at school and made some funny and useful meeting people games like “decide who’s coming to dinner”.
Wednesday, 23rd of july of 2008
We’re going on very well with Tom, the teacher, and until now, we’ve received some interesting lectures (specially one about the history of Brighton…taking into consideration that I have my degree in History and I love it). Welcome to new webs to use at school! We found out Dictogloss. Great!
Thrusday, 24 of july of 2008
Hard to learn and sing “the grand old duke of york” all together. Useful pronunciation exercices to be adapted to our pupils. Yesterday we went to Brighton with Nick, it was fine, we visited the Royal Palace, the lanes…very good weather and some shopping at sainsbury just for dinner (we can,t eat outside everyday…). Watch out the seagulls, Elena was quietly having lunch and suddenly a seagull picked up her sandwich!..what a boo!
Friday, 25 of july of 2008
White Board!...it’s amazing!...I want one at school for september! Please!. Finally I am able to use it, it’s incredible!
We went to Rootidgedean, beautiful town, nice views, but…Fernando (Humpty Dumpty) sat on a wall..and had a great fall..poor thing!. Unlees we were practising english at Royal Sussex County Hospital…
Saturday, 26 of july of 2008
I went to London with Silvia, Isa, Elena, Rodo and Rafa, we really had a great time!, we were tired…but London is… London.
Alicia's diary (first week)
Monday 21st July 2008
This is the first day of the Professional Development Course that will be taking place in the University of Sussex, in Brighton, from the 21st of July until the 2nd of August. We have been introduced to Tom Ottway and Melanie Suppel. Tom asked about what we expect of the course, which is supposed to deal with CLIL and personal language improvement. He also explained to us the project we need to do, and assessed our speaking.
In my opinion, this course is a great opportunity for us, I will try make the most of it. I hope to learn lots of new ideas to put into practise in my class. In this diary I will write new teaching techniques, useful ideas I can use for my classes, as well as cultural observations and how I can use I.C.T. in the Primary Classroom.
Alicia
Tuesday 22nd July 2008
Today Jeremy Page gave to us a talk on Bilingualism. It was interesting, but perhaps not so useful for us because we have read about it (and studied for the “Oposicion”!).
We also did computer work in pairs: We search on the Internet for new sites we could find interesting. We found several sites, for instance:
www.sci-spy.ie
www.eslprintables.com
www.angles365.com
www.focusonphonics.co.uk
www.bbc.co.uk
www.britishcouncil.org/kids
Tom taught us a nice game for our classes, the Telegram Game: It consists of inventing a sentence whose words begin with some letters given. Points are given for funny answers, and removed for mistakes. I’m sure kids will love it!
Alicia
Wednesday 23rd July 2008
We were given a lecture on the History of Brighton by Alexander Loske. I loved it, you could see quite clearly she knew a lot about Brighton and its history. She recommend us nice places to visit as well. I really liked the idea of being given a lecture on the history of Brighton in the morning and visiting the city (we had the city tour with Nicky) in the afternoon, because we remembered things she had told us previously.
We have been dealing with Phonics. I am interested in the teaching method “Jolly Phonics”. I know there are many ways of teaching Phonics, but this is the one I have heard about most. So in the afternoon I went to Brighton and bought the book with the songs and the lyrics.
Alicia
Thursday 24th July 2008
Today we have continued with Phonics, this time by working with a song called “The Grand Old Duke of York”. It is amazing how many activities you can do with the same song. We learnt by doing, this is to say, we first do the activity to know how it goes.
I have also learnt an activity I had never heard of before: The dictogloss. I really liked it, it is quite useful especially with the third cycle of Primary Education.
Finally, we worked with new media. We saw a video and a web site, quite interesting by the way. It deals with British Icons, which lets you know what’s on in British culture nowadays.
Alicia
Friday 25th July 2008
Today we have been working with the Interactive Board. We have been practising the basic things you can do, and it’s great. I would like to use it in my classroom, it’s got lots of possibilities and I’m sure children will love it. I think it is important to keep on practising, otherwise you forget or become “scared” of it.
Unfortunately, in Spain we haven’t got an Interactive Blackboard in each classroom. Most schools haven’t got any. In my school we only have one, and I can only use it once a week. I hope we can have one per classroom soon, it would be great.
Alicia
Saturday 26th July 2008
Visit to Brighton, we visited several churches, the Royal Pavilion, the Brighton Museum and Hove. I liked it, especially the Royal Museum… I was fascinated, it is so different comparing it with the world outside!!!
Alicia
Sunday 27th July 2008
Visit to Canterbury and Rye. Both places were beautiful, but Canterbury has much more things to see, so we didn’t have time to visit everything and we were in a hurry!!! I think it is better to spend all day in Canterbury, to be more relaxed.
Alicia
This is the first day of the Professional Development Course that will be taking place in the University of Sussex, in Brighton, from the 21st of July until the 2nd of August. We have been introduced to Tom Ottway and Melanie Suppel. Tom asked about what we expect of the course, which is supposed to deal with CLIL and personal language improvement. He also explained to us the project we need to do, and assessed our speaking.
In my opinion, this course is a great opportunity for us, I will try make the most of it. I hope to learn lots of new ideas to put into practise in my class. In this diary I will write new teaching techniques, useful ideas I can use for my classes, as well as cultural observations and how I can use I.C.T. in the Primary Classroom.
Alicia
Tuesday 22nd July 2008
Today Jeremy Page gave to us a talk on Bilingualism. It was interesting, but perhaps not so useful for us because we have read about it (and studied for the “Oposicion”!).
We also did computer work in pairs: We search on the Internet for new sites we could find interesting. We found several sites, for instance:
www.sci-spy.ie
www.eslprintables.com
www.angles365.com
www.focusonphonics.co.uk
www.bbc.co.uk
www.britishcouncil.org/kids
Tom taught us a nice game for our classes, the Telegram Game: It consists of inventing a sentence whose words begin with some letters given. Points are given for funny answers, and removed for mistakes. I’m sure kids will love it!
Alicia
Wednesday 23rd July 2008
We were given a lecture on the History of Brighton by Alexander Loske. I loved it, you could see quite clearly she knew a lot about Brighton and its history. She recommend us nice places to visit as well. I really liked the idea of being given a lecture on the history of Brighton in the morning and visiting the city (we had the city tour with Nicky) in the afternoon, because we remembered things she had told us previously.
We have been dealing with Phonics. I am interested in the teaching method “Jolly Phonics”. I know there are many ways of teaching Phonics, but this is the one I have heard about most. So in the afternoon I went to Brighton and bought the book with the songs and the lyrics.
Alicia
Thursday 24th July 2008
Today we have continued with Phonics, this time by working with a song called “The Grand Old Duke of York”. It is amazing how many activities you can do with the same song. We learnt by doing, this is to say, we first do the activity to know how it goes.
I have also learnt an activity I had never heard of before: The dictogloss. I really liked it, it is quite useful especially with the third cycle of Primary Education.
Finally, we worked with new media. We saw a video and a web site, quite interesting by the way. It deals with British Icons, which lets you know what’s on in British culture nowadays.
Alicia
Friday 25th July 2008
Today we have been working with the Interactive Board. We have been practising the basic things you can do, and it’s great. I would like to use it in my classroom, it’s got lots of possibilities and I’m sure children will love it. I think it is important to keep on practising, otherwise you forget or become “scared” of it.
Unfortunately, in Spain we haven’t got an Interactive Blackboard in each classroom. Most schools haven’t got any. In my school we only have one, and I can only use it once a week. I hope we can have one per classroom soon, it would be great.
Alicia
Saturday 26th July 2008
Visit to Brighton, we visited several churches, the Royal Pavilion, the Brighton Museum and Hove. I liked it, especially the Royal Museum… I was fascinated, it is so different comparing it with the world outside!!!
Alicia
Sunday 27th July 2008
Visit to Canterbury and Rye. Both places were beautiful, but Canterbury has much more things to see, so we didn’t have time to visit everything and we were in a hurry!!! I think it is better to spend all day in Canterbury, to be more relaxed.
Alicia
Rafa's diary
The real sussex diary
So far, for more than ten days I've been living in a kind of student hotel, really near The Sussex University, in Falmer, where I've been given a training course for teachers.
Monday
The very first day we met Tom and Melanie at the University, where they explained the most important hings related to this course. Melanie gave us some of the most important helpful hints to avoid any "dangerous experience". After that It was Tom's turn to introduce himself and go through the schedule. Finally he put into practice a game which let us know each other much better. In the afternoon Tom was teaching us some speaking skills.
Tuesday
This morning we've had an interesting class based on intonation, I've found really interesting the game called "the telegram game", I think, this kind of game can get all the students very motivated easily as well as the other pronunciation game, based on "Guided discovery", in order to spot the difference between different sounds. After the break we had another speech on bilingualism, but this time, the speech doesn't worth it since, to be honest, I wasn't really interersted in the topic he was telling us. It was a very theoretical class and I think no one was able to get involved in it.
Wednesday
During the class we've been given a brief induction into the Brighton's history by Alexandra, another teacher. By listening her explanations, I could find out some quite interesting aspects about Brighton, such as how the old Brighton Pier was set on fire on purpose because of the insurance, or how Brighton was intended to be conquered many times. Besides, the teacher showed us some displays about what she was telling us. After the break we went into the city of Brighton, where Niki was the person in charge to take us around the downtown. There, we could see some of the places described by Alexandra in the morning
Thursday
Today we've been taught several ways of teaching pronunciation, intonation and phonetics. Tom's prepared a quite interesting class as we've had the chance both to leran and enjoy the lessons since all the topics were really funny for me. First of all, we've been singing "The Grand Old Duke of York song", a really good way of practising pronunciation and intonation, and then we've played a kind of game that consists of getting out of the classroom as soon as possible adn to take a lokk at a piece of paper on the wall and try to memorize some of the information contained on the sheet and then dictate it to my colleagues. In my opinion, the two activities are really fun and I think children may well get involved by doing them, and as we know, the more enjoyable is the activity, the faster kids are able to leran it. Moreover, I truly think that I could use the second activity as a warm-up ectivity in my subject (Phys. Ed.)
Friday
Today we've had an interesting class based on how to use the interactive whiteboard. There's no doubt that it's a useful resource to teach any subject in a faster way, and also enjoyableway for all the kids. The interactive whiteboard lets you lots of possibilities to turn the lesson to be taught that day into a quite attractive stuff for the students. This tyoe of resource would be useful at the very beginning of every pre-sport class, in order to show them what you want to teach them, and also each specific movement.
Weekend
I spent this weekend in London, where a friends from the course and I were wandering around the downtown. It was a tyring activity, as we walked the whole day, but It was worth seeing the main London's landmarks. Next day I met an old classmate from Madrid Who I was eating in Hyde park with. After the lunch we went for a walk through the main London's streets. Finally , at eight o'clock, we took the train to Brighton to have a deserved rest at home.
Monday
We’ve been taught how to create and customise our own blog. I strongly think that this is an interesting and funny activity in order to share all the information with people you want to, and it also provides you with the possibility of knowing more details about differents topics you are interested in. I found quite interesting the course in many parts of it, although most of the activities in the course are useful to be taught in the classroom, and, since I'm teaching Phys. Ed. I will have to adjust them to my subject.
So far, for more than ten days I've been living in a kind of student hotel, really near The Sussex University, in Falmer, where I've been given a training course for teachers.
Monday
The very first day we met Tom and Melanie at the University, where they explained the most important hings related to this course. Melanie gave us some of the most important helpful hints to avoid any "dangerous experience". After that It was Tom's turn to introduce himself and go through the schedule. Finally he put into practice a game which let us know each other much better. In the afternoon Tom was teaching us some speaking skills.
Tuesday
This morning we've had an interesting class based on intonation, I've found really interesting the game called "the telegram game", I think, this kind of game can get all the students very motivated easily as well as the other pronunciation game, based on "Guided discovery", in order to spot the difference between different sounds. After the break we had another speech on bilingualism, but this time, the speech doesn't worth it since, to be honest, I wasn't really interersted in the topic he was telling us. It was a very theoretical class and I think no one was able to get involved in it.
Wednesday
During the class we've been given a brief induction into the Brighton's history by Alexandra, another teacher. By listening her explanations, I could find out some quite interesting aspects about Brighton, such as how the old Brighton Pier was set on fire on purpose because of the insurance, or how Brighton was intended to be conquered many times. Besides, the teacher showed us some displays about what she was telling us. After the break we went into the city of Brighton, where Niki was the person in charge to take us around the downtown. There, we could see some of the places described by Alexandra in the morning
Thursday
Today we've been taught several ways of teaching pronunciation, intonation and phonetics. Tom's prepared a quite interesting class as we've had the chance both to leran and enjoy the lessons since all the topics were really funny for me. First of all, we've been singing "The Grand Old Duke of York song", a really good way of practising pronunciation and intonation, and then we've played a kind of game that consists of getting out of the classroom as soon as possible adn to take a lokk at a piece of paper on the wall and try to memorize some of the information contained on the sheet and then dictate it to my colleagues. In my opinion, the two activities are really fun and I think children may well get involved by doing them, and as we know, the more enjoyable is the activity, the faster kids are able to leran it. Moreover, I truly think that I could use the second activity as a warm-up ectivity in my subject (Phys. Ed.)
Friday
Today we've had an interesting class based on how to use the interactive whiteboard. There's no doubt that it's a useful resource to teach any subject in a faster way, and also enjoyableway for all the kids. The interactive whiteboard lets you lots of possibilities to turn the lesson to be taught that day into a quite attractive stuff for the students. This tyoe of resource would be useful at the very beginning of every pre-sport class, in order to show them what you want to teach them, and also each specific movement.
Weekend
I spent this weekend in London, where a friends from the course and I were wandering around the downtown. It was a tyring activity, as we walked the whole day, but It was worth seeing the main London's landmarks. Next day I met an old classmate from Madrid Who I was eating in Hyde park with. After the lunch we went for a walk through the main London's streets. Finally , at eight o'clock, we took the train to Brighton to have a deserved rest at home.
Monday
We’ve been taught how to create and customise our own blog. I strongly think that this is an interesting and funny activity in order to share all the information with people you want to, and it also provides you with the possibility of knowing more details about differents topics you are interested in. I found quite interesting the course in many parts of it, although most of the activities in the course are useful to be taught in the classroom, and, since I'm teaching Phys. Ed. I will have to adjust them to my subject.
Hello from Tom Week 2 Monday
Hi everyone
PD is an experiment, right? Sorry to be a pain but could you also copy and paste your diary on to this site but post as you (e.g. with your gmail login). Then I can comment easily on your blog, and so can everyone else, which would be nice.
Thanks
Tom
PD is an experiment, right? Sorry to be a pain but could you also copy and paste your diary on to this site but post as you (e.g. with your gmail login). Then I can comment easily on your blog, and so can everyone else, which would be nice.
Thanks
Tom
Friday, 25 July 2008
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
Phonics links
Here are some useful links for CLIL and phonics
Tom
http://irunenglish.blogspot.com/2007/10/phonics.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/phonics/index.shtml
http://www.onestopenglish.com/section.asp?sectionType=listsummary&catid=59961
http://www.onestopenglish.com/section.asp?sectionType=listsummary&catid=59961
Tom
http://irunenglish.blogspot.com/2007/10/phonics.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/phonics/index.shtml
http://www.onestopenglish.com/section.asp?sectionType=listsummary&catid=59961
http://www.onestopenglish.com/section.asp?sectionType=listsummary&catid=59961
Thursday, 17 July 2008
Welcome everyone!
This is your blog. you can leave messages and posts here, or upload movie clips or pictures.
Good luck!
Tom
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